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CONDITIONS  OF  SUCCESS  IN  PREACHING 
WITHOUT  NOTES. 


THREE      LECTURES 

DBLIVERBD  BEFORB  THB  STUDENTS  OF  THB 

UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 

NEW   YORK: 
January  13,  20,  27 :    1875  ; 

WA\  an  ^ppenbisr. 

,-   BY 

RICHARD  S.  STORRS,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

OF    BROOKLYN,    N.Y. 


4-1'5'i'S 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHEIW 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1875,  by 

DODD  AND    MEAD, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


CONTENTS. 


First  Lecture 9 

Second  Lecture 70 

Third  Lecture        ....  .       .       •  131 

Appendix   ...  •       •  »       .       •  »09 


Vs 


PREFATORY   NOTE. 


In  marking  out  the  course  of  thought  to  be  pur 

sued  in  the  following  lectures  the  writer  of  this  note 

^^  had  no  more  intention  of  preparing  a  volume,  how- 

V  ever  slight,  on  the  best  method   of   preaching   the 

Gospel,  than   he   had   of   composing  a  treatise  on 

r;  Ethics,  or  an  essay  on  Fine  Art.     His  only  design 

<  was,  in  compliance  with  the  invitatipn  of  the  hon- 

tn  ored  President   and   Facult}'   of   the   Union  Theo- 

"^  logical  Seminary,  to  say  some  words  to  the  students 

^-^  of  that  institution,  especially  to  those  of  the  senior 

class,  on  his  own  experience  in  preaching  without 

notes,  and  on  the  lessons  which  this  had  taught  him 

as   to  the   most    effective    mode    of   preparing  for 

the  work. 

The  one  lecture  which  at  first  was  contemplated 
grew  into  three  ;  and  if  the  three  h-d  been  multi- 

S 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


plied  by  three,  the  subject  would  have  remained 
inadequately  treated.  It  was  not  till  after  the  first 
of  them  had  been  delivered  that  the  lecturer  was 
advised,  by  the  present  publisher,  that  arrangements 
had  been  made  for  fully  reporting  them,  and  that, 
unless  positive  objection  were  made,  they  would  be 
printed.  Certainly  no  book  was  ever  made,  there- 
fore, with  less  of  pre-determination  on  the  part  of 
the  author. 

It  seems  only  reasonable  to  ask  that  any  one  mto 
whose  hands  the  book  may  fall  will  remember  the 
way  in  which  it  came  to  exist,  and  will  not  expect 
from  it  something  more  and  other  than  it  seeks  to 
supply.  The  lectures  were  spoken,  without  having 
been  written  ;  and  the  author  would  not  have  felt  at 
liberty  to  recast  them,  even  if  he  had  had  the  leisure 
for  the  work.  Here  and  there  a  phrase  or  a  sentence 
has  been  changed ;  a  word  has  occasionally  been 
substituted  for  another,  when  that  selected  at  the 
instant  of  speaking  seemed  not  the  best  as  more 
quietly  reviewed  ;  and  in  one  instance  an  unimpor- 
tant paragraph  has  been  transferred  from  one  part 
of  a  lecture  to  another  more  fitting.     Otherwise,  the 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 


lectures  are  printed  as  delivered,  —  this  being  the 
wish  of  all  concerned  with  them. 

The  style  of  them  is,  therefore,  so  entirely  witlK>at 
the  elaboration  in  which  authors  delight  that  if 
pride  of  authorship  alone  were  to  be  consulted  they 
certainly  would  not  now  be  published.  But  the 
thoughts  expressed  in  them  are  such  as  had  com- 
mended themselves  to  the  lecturer,  in  his  own  min- 
isterial life  and  work,  and  such  as  he  therefore  had 
no  hesitation  in  presenting  to  others,  in  the  form 
of  free  and  familiar  discouise.  He  does  not  now 
shrink  from  presenting  them  to  the  public,  though 
quite  aware  how  slight  is  their  claim  to  any  general 
attention,  and  how  different  would  have  been  the 
form  to  be  given  them  if  he  had  contemplated 
making  a  book. 

They  are  published,  at  the  expressed  desire  of 
some  who  had  heard  them,  and  of  more  who  had 
not ;  in  the  hope  that,  with  all  their  obvious  imper- 
fections, they  may  contribute  something,  of  encour- 
agement if  not  of  more  special  assistance,  to  those 
who  would  speak  the  unchanging  truth  with  which 
God  crowds  and  crowns  the  Gospel,  out  of  a  fur 


8  PREFATORY  NOTE. 

nished  and  quickening  mind,  without  that  perpetual 
bondage  to  the  pen  which  presses  heavily  on  many 
ministers. 

RiciiAXJ)  S.  Storks, 
Brooklyn,  February  i^  187s 


FIRST   LECTURE. 


Mr.  President :   Young  Gentlemen  :  — 

There  will  be  no  misunderstanding  between 
us,  I  presume,  as  to  my  general  purpose  and 
plan  in  coming  hither,  or  in  what  I  am  to  say 
to  you,  now  and  hereafter.  I  do  not  come,  of 
course,  to  deliver  systematic  and  elaborate  lec- 
tures, on  the  subject  upon  whfch  I  am  to  speak. 
You  have  Professors  to  do  that;  with  leisure, 
skill,  and  an  aptness  for  the  office,  which  I  do 
not  possess  ;  and  I  should  only  be  intruding 
myself  upon  their  function,  without  invitation 
and  without  warrant,  if  I  were  to  attempt  any 
thing  of  the  kind.  I  have  come  simply  to  talk 
to  you  a  little,  in  a  familiar  way,  of  the  con- 
ditions of  success  in  preaching  without  notes ; 
and   to   offer  some  thoughts,  concerning  these 

9 


lO        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

conditions,  which  are  suggested  to  me  by  my 
own  experience. 

I  have  thought,  in  looking  back  on  my  Semi- 
nary course,  that  I  should  have  been  glad  if 
some  one  who  had  entered  the  ministry  before 
me  had  then  told  me,  frankly  and  fully,  as  I 
hope  to  tell  you,  what  he  had  learned  by  any 
efforts  which  he  had  made  in  this  direction.  So 
I  have  cheerfully  accepted  the  invitation  to  do 
for  you  what  I  see  I  should  have  been  glad  to 
have  had  some  one  else  then  do  for  me. 

I  am  somewhat  abashed,  I  confess,  at  finding 
so  many  present  whom  I  have  not  come  prepared 
to  address :  Professors,  Secretaries,  Clergymen^ 
Lawyers,  Editors,  and  others  —  many  of  them 
masters  of  every  art  and  power  of  eloquence,  as 
I  am  not,  and  far  better  qualified  to  instruct  me 
on  the  subject  than  I  am  to  give  suggestions 
to  them.  But  I  shall  not  be  diverted  from  the 
one  purpose  which  has  brought  me  hither  —  to 
talk  familiarly  and  freely  to  you.  If  what  I  am 
to  say  shall  seem  common-place,  as  very  likely 


LESSONS    OF    EXPERIENCE.  II 

it  will,  to  these  gentlemen  whose  presence  I  did 
not  anticipate,  I  can  only  remind  them  that  they 
are  not  here  at  my  invitation,  and  that  if  they 
choose  to  take  part  of  their  purgatory  in  this 
life,  and  in  this  particular  fashion,  we  cannot 
object.  But  I  have  only  you  to  speak  to ;  and 
shall  not  turn  aside  to  consider  whether  that 
which  is  in  my  mind  is,  or  is  not,  what  they 
have  come  to  hear. 

As  I  said,  the  suggestions  which  I  make  will 
be  largely  those  derived  from  my  personal  expe- 
rience. I  do  not  know  that  you  will  find  much 
profit  in  them,  for  I  remember  the  remark  of 
Coleridge  that  '  experience  is  like  the  stern-light 
of  a  ship  at  sea :  it  enlightens  only  the  track 
which  has  been  passed  over.'  There  are  such 
differences  between  men,  in  temperament,  habit, 
mental  constitution,  the  natural  and  customary 
methods  of  work,  that  the  experience  of  one  may 
not  suggest  much  of  value  to  another,  ani  I 
shall  not  be  disappointed  if  mine  is  not  very  ser- 
viceable to  you.     Indeed  this  matter  of  speak- 


12       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

ing  freely  to  a  public  assembly,  without  notes,  is 
eminently  one  in  regard  to  which  every  man 
must  learn  for  himself  ;  and  no  one  can  make 
his  own  method  a  rule  for  another,  unless  he  can 
simultaneously  exchange  minds  with  him  —  a 
thing  which  in  our  case  would  be  neither  pos- 
sible for  me,  nor  perhaps  profitable  for  you. 
Still :  the  rules  which  experience  suggests  are 
likely  to  be  better  than  those  which  theorists 
elaborate  in  their  libraries  ;  and  I  have  got 
more  help  myself  from  hints  of  others,  working 
in  the  same  direction,  than  from  any  discussions 
in  learned  treatises.  So  I  shall  give  you  what  I 
can,  and  hope  for  the  best  ;  and  if  any  thing 
which  I  may  say  shall  prove  to  be  of  service  to 
you,  I  shall  be  amply  rewarded  for  the  work. 

To  lay  the  foundation  for  my  remarks  I  will 
state  rapidly  what  my  experience  in  the  matter 
has  been. 

I  was  in  part  educated  for  the  bar ;  and  was 
at  one  time  quite  familiar  with  the  Boston  court- 
rooms, at  a  period  when  the  Suffolk-bar  was  at 


THE   SUFFOLK  BAR.  1 3 

the  height  of  its  power  and  fame.  Mr.  Webster 
was  there,  in  the  intervals  between  the  sessions 
of  the  Senate,  in  the  maturity  and  splendor  of 
his  majestic  intelligence.  Mr.  Choate  was  there 
—  under  whose  direction  I  was  prosecuting  my 
studies  — whose  genius  seemed  an  oriental  exotic, 
brilliant,  luxuriant,  among  the  common  ferns 
and  brake  of  New  England.  Mr.  Benjamin  R. 
Curtis  was  there,  —  recently  deceased,  then  in 
the  prime  of  his  force  and  his  career,  —  whose 
power  of  perspicuous  and  persuasive  legal  state- 
ment surpassed  that,  I  think,  of  any  speaker 
whom  I  have  since  anywhere  heard.  With 
these  were  associated  others,  not  so  prominent 
then  or  since  before  the  public,  but  only  second 
to  them  in  faculty  and  in  training. 

All  these  men,  of  course,  were  in  the  habit  of 
speaking  constantly,  without  notes,  before  the 
full  Bench,  or  to  the  Jury  ;  in  the  most  impor- 
tant and  difficult  cases,  as  well  as  in  those  of 
lighter  consequence ;  when  arguing  difficult 
questions  of  law,  as  well  as  when  discussing  an 


14  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

issue  of  facts.  I  never  knew  but  one  lawyer 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  his  arguments 
from  a  full  manuscript ;  and  he,  though  an  able, 
was  a  remarkably  timid  man,  whose  argument 
was  always  addressed  to  the  Judge,  not  to  the 
Jury. 

I  could  not  see,  therefore,  why  a  minister  — 
however  limited  in  faculty  and  in  culture,  in 
comparison  certainly  with  these  eminent  men  — 
should  not  do  that  before  his  congregation,  which 
lawyers  were  doing  all  the  time  in  the  courts  ; 
and  when  my  plans  of  life  were  changed,  under 
the  impulse  as  I  thought  of  God's  Spirit,  and  I 
had  devoted  myself  to  the  ministry,  I  determined 
if  possible  to  fit  myself  to  do  this,  and  to  preach 
without  reading.  It  seemed  to  me  that  this  was 
the  more  apostolic  way,  at  least.  I  could  not 
learn  that  Paul  pulled  out  a  Greek  manuscript, 
and  undertook  to  read  it  with  his  infirm  eyes, 
when  he  addressed  the  woman  at  Philippi;  or 
even  when  he  spoke  on  Mars  Hill,  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Propylea  and  the  Parthenon,  to  the 


TRAINING   IN   THE   SEMINARY.  1 5 

critical  Athenians.  It  seemed  to  me  that  to 
speak  to  men  without  notes,  out  of  a  full  and  ear- 
nest mind,  was  now  as  then  the  most  natural  and 
effective  way  to  address  them  ;  the  way  most  fit- 
ting to  those  sublime  and  practical  themes  which 
the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  has  to  present,  and  to 
the  interests,  so  immensely  important,  which  he 
is  to  subserve.  And  I  was  distinctly  and  delibe- 
rately determined,  if  it  was  in  my  power  to 
accomplish  it,  to  learn  to  speak  thus,  and  not  to 
either  read  my  sermons,  or  write  them  out  and 
commit  them  to  memory. 

Accordingly,  I  did  some  training  for  this  in 
my  Seminary  course  ;  but  it  was  not  much,  nor 
was  it  particularly  fruitful  of  good.  I  presume 
that  you  are  here  encouraged  in  such  efforts, 
guided,  and  stimulated.  I  presume  the  students 
at  Andover  are  so  now,  under  the  present  regime. 
But  in  my  time  there  —  as  some  of  these  gentle- 
men present  will  remember,  who  were  there  with 
me  —  such  a  method  of  preaching  was  not  looked 
upon  with  particular  favor.     The  atmosphere  of 


l6  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

the  Seminary  was  not  friendly  or  helpful  to  it.  It 
was  about  as  trying  an  ordeal  as  a  man  can  well 
pass  to  stand  up  and  speak  without  a  manuscript, 
in  the  lecture-room  or  the  chapel.  I  don't  know 
that  the  criticism  which  was  encountered  was 
any  more  severe  than  it  should  have  been.  I 
am  sure  it  was  never  intentionally  oppressive  or 
unjust.  But  it  was  most  thoroughly  searching 
and  exact ;  so  that  if  a  man  had  any  weaknesses 
or  faults  about  him,  as  all  of  us  had,  he  was 
sure  enough  to  find  them  out,  and  was  usually 
glad,  after  one  experiment,  to  take  refuge  in 
future  behind  his  notes. 

I  got  some  practice  in  the  debating  society  ; 
and  two  or  three  times,  as  I  remember,  adven- 
tured upon  short  public  speeches,  without  notes 
in  my  pocket.  But  on  the  whole  I  lost  rather 
than  gained,  in  this  regard,  in  my  Seminary 
course;  and  when  I  came  out  was  hardly  as 
eager,  perhaps,  so  far  as  courage  and  confidence 
were  concerned,  was  hardly  as  well  fitted,  to 
preach  without  notes  as  I  should  have  been  ear* 


SETTLEMENT   AT   BROOKLINE.  I J 

lier.  My  conviction  on  the  subject  remained, 
however  ;  and  I  was  still  resolved  to  get  used  to 
this  method,  and  to  empby  it,  if  I  could. 

My  first  settlement  in  the  ministry  was  at 
Brookline,  near  Boston  ;  in  a  charming  suburban 
parish,  but  with  a  congregation  not  helpful  to  my 
plans  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  the  method 
of  preaching.  In  a  church  capable  of  holding 
five  hundred  or  six  hundred  people  we  had  usu- 
ally, in  the  winter,  a  congregation  of  perhaps 
seventy-five  to  a  hundred.  They  were  as  affec- 
tionate and  appreciative  hearers  as  any  man  need 
ask  or  hope  for.  But  the  majority  of  them  were 
cultured,  careful,  critical  hearers,  who  required  a 
high  intellectual  tone  in  whatever  was  said  to 
them,  and  were  instantly  sensitive  to  its  absence. 

They  had  been  trained  under  the  Boston  pul- 
pits, the  ministers  in  which  almost  universally  — 
perhaps  quite  universally  —  then  read  their  ser- 
mons ;  and,  though  kind  as  they  could  be,  they 
were  inevitably  exacting  in  their  demand  for  pre- 
cision and  elegance  of  literary  form.     It  was  a 


1 8  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES, 


scattered  assembly,  of  individuals,  and  of  sepa- 
rated households.  There  was  no  mass  of  hearers, 
to  be  kindled  and  swayed  by  a  common  enthu- 
siasm, and  in  turn  to  react  upon  the  preacher : 
they  were  not  numerous  enough  for  that,  and  the 
building  itself  was  relatively  too  large.  They 
were  most  of  them,  of  course,  older  than  I  was, 
and  I  was  diffident  in  speaking  before  them  on 
subjects  much  longer  familiar  to  them  than  they 
had  been  to  me.  They  were  more  or  less 
anxious,  too,  as  to  the  impression  to  be  made  by 
my  preaching  on  the  Unitarian  or  Episcopalian 
outsiders  who  frequently  made  a  part  of  the  con- 
gregation ;  and  so  were  uneasy  and  apprehensive 
when  I  rose  without  notes,  and  jubilant  whenever 
they  saw  these  before  me. 

I  made  my  endeavors,  more  than  once,  to  carry 
out  the  plan  which  I  had  proposed,  and  preach 
without  a  manuscript  before  me  ;  but  it  was  all 
the  time  like  swimming  up  the  rapids,  while  with 
the  manuscript  I  had  only  to  float  easily  on  the 
current.     I  tried  to  combine  the  advantages  of 


i 


USE   OF   A   SKELETON.  1 9 


both  methods  :  to  have  notes  before  me,  a  some- 
what full  skeleton  of  my  discourse,  and  then  to 
be  at  liberty,  in  the  intervals  between  the  heads 
and  sub-heads,  to  avail  myself  of  any  suggestions 
that  might  come.  But  this  plan  I  found,  for  me 
—  however  it  may  be  for  others  —  the  poorest 
possible.  I  lost  all  fluency,  and  continuity  of 
thought.  The  intervals  were  not  long  enough, 
between  my  prepared  heads,  to  allow  the  mind 
to  get  freely,  freshly,  vigorously  at  work.  Just 
as  my  mental  glow  began,  if  it  did  begin,  it  had 
to  be  checked  by  returning  to  the  manuscript. 
My  utterance  was  inevitably  interrupted,  sus- 
pended, at  the  moment  at  which  it  might  other- 
wise have  come  to  be  easy  and  spontaneous.  I 
could  never  get  force  enough,  between  the  recur- 
ring references  to  my  notes,  to  push  the  sermon 
home  upon  my  hearers,  or  even  to  carry  my  own 
mind  through  it  with  any  sense  of  liberty  and 
vigor.  The  whole  sermon  became  a  series  of 
jerks.  There  was  no  gathered  and  helpful  mo- 
mentum, toward  the  end,  or  anywhere  else.     I 


20       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

lost  the  foresight  of  the  end  from  the  beginning ; 
was  wholly  engrossed  in  taking  each  successive 
step  correctly,  when  I  should  come  to  it.  I 
became  timid,  retrospective,  and  had  no  sense  of 
real  mastery  over  the  theme,  or  of  any  mastery 
whatever  over  the  minds  to  which  I  was  sneak- 
ing. 

So  I  gave  up  that  plan,  then  and  there,  and 
have  never  once  thought  of  trying  it  since.  It 
would  be  to  me  like  running  a  race,  with  a  ball 
and  chain  attached  to  each  foot.  I  should  read 
every  sermon  I  ever  preached,  if  that  were  to 
be  the  only  alternative. 

During  the  year  which  I  spent  at  Brookline,  I 
persevered  in  these  efforts  to  get  free  from 
necessary  dependence  on  my  notes;  but  I  do 
not  think  that  I  ever  once,  in  the  pulpit  there, 
on  the  Sunday,  had  any  true  sense  of  liberty  and 
joy  in  public  utterance,  unless  I  was  reading. 
It  was  a  steady  hard  struggle,  from  first  to  last, 
for  conscious  freedom  in  public  speech  ;  with 
almost  no  sense  of  success,  and  with  very  little 


FIRST  SERMON  AT  BROOKLYN.  21 


reward,  except  as  my  will  got  hardened  by  it.  I 
don't  know  whether  I  should  have  kept  on  or 
not,  if  I  had  stayed  there  longer. 

It  so  happened  that  the  first  sermon  which  I 
ever  preached  at  Brooklyn  —  the  only  one, 
indeed,  which  I  ever  preached  there  before 
being  called  to  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  — 
was  preached  without  notes.  I  was  called 
upon  unexpectedly  for  the  service,  as  I  was 
passing  through  the  city,  and  when  I  had  with 
me  no  manuscript  sermons.  But  I  had  a  subject 
in  mind  on  which  I  had  written  not  long  before, 
in  which  I  had  been  at  the  time  much  inter- 
ested, and  of  which  I  had  made  a  thorough 
analysis.  The  course  of  thought  pursued  in 
the  sermon  was  fresh  in  my  mind,  though  the 
notes  were  not  with  me.  I  preached  in  a  lec- 
ture-room, which  was  wholly  filled  with  attentive 
hearers.  I  had  no  sort  of  fear  of  the  congrega- 
tion, which  was  entirely  made  up  of  strangers 
to  me  ;  and  I  found  as  I  went  or,  in  Ihe  treat- 
ment of   the    subject  with   which    I   had   made 


22  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

myself  previously  familiar,  that  the  mind  worked 
with  a  facility,  a  force,  a  sense  of  exhilaration, 
which  I  never  had  had  in  reading  from  a  manu- 
script. I  enjoyed  the  service,  and  had  a  certain 
sense  of  Christian  success  in  it.  The  people 
were  interested  ;  and  their  interest  had  an  in- 
stant reflex  influence  upon  my  own  mind,  so  that 
the  success  became  duplicated.  It  seemed  to 
me,  at  the  end,  that  it  must  be  always  easy  and 
pleasant,  under  similar  conditions,  to  repeat  that 
experiment. 

When,  therefore,  I  was  called  to  that  church, 
and  had  decided  to  go  there,  I  was  fully  deter- 
mined to  carry  out  this  plan  of  preaching  with- 
out notes,  occasionally  at  least,  at  all  hazards.  I 
was  twenty-five  years  old,  and  thought  I  knew 
something :  —  as  men  are  apt  to  think,  at  that 
time  of  life.  I  had  had  a  year's  practice  in  the 
pulpit,  such  as  it  was,  and  had  gained  some  free- 
ly om  and  confidence  from  it.  The  congregation 
at  Brooklyn  was  certainly  larger  than  the  one  to 
which  I  had  ministered  before,  and  it  seemed  to 


SERMON   AFTER   INSTALLATION.  23 

me  likely  to  be  more  sympathetic  with  a  freer 
tone  and  style  of  speech.  I  was  more  certain 
than  ever  that  I  should  find  relief  and  help  in 
my  preferred  method  of  preaching,  if  I  could 
master  it ;  and  I  was  resolved  to  master  it,  if 
the  thing  could  be  done. 

So  the  first  sermon  which  I  preached,  after 
my  Installation,  was  preached  without  notes.  It 
was  very  nearly  a  dead  failure.  It  was  an  abso- 
lute failure,  so  far  as  any  sense  of  liberty  on 
my  part,  or  any  useful  effect  on  the  people,  was 
concerned.  I  have  the  notes  of  it  still ;  and  not 
long  ago,  in  looking  over  old  papers,  I  happened 
upon  these,  and  read  them  over.  I  saw  at  a 
glance  what  the  secret  of  the  failure  had  been. 
I  had  made  too  much  preparation  in  detail ;  had 
written  out  heads,  sub-divisions,  even  some  pas- 
sages or  paragraphs  in  full,  in  order  that  I  might 
be  certain  beforehand  to  have  material  enough 
at  command ;  and  the  result  of  it  was  that  I  was 
all  the  time  looking  backward,  not  forward,  in 
preaching;  trying  to  remember,  not  only  pre- 


24  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

arranged  trains  of  thought  but  particular  forms 
of  expression,  instead  of  trusting  to  the  impulse 
of  the  subject,  and  seeking  to  impress  certain 
great  and  principal  features  of  it  on  the  congre- 
gation. 

My  verbal  memory  has  always  been  the 
weakest  part  of  my  mental  organization.  I 
hardly  dare  trust  myself  now  to  quote  a  sen- 
tence from  any  writer,  without  having  it  before 
me  in  manuscript,  I  had  wholly  overloaded  this 
verbal  memory,  in  my  preparation  for  the  ser- 
vice ;  and  the  inevitable  consequence  was  that 
it  and  I  staggered  along  together,  for  perhaps 
twenty-five  minutes,  and  then  stopped.  I  sank 
back  on  the  chair,  almost  wishing  that  I  had  been 
with  Pharaoh  and  his  hosts  when  the  Red  Sea 
went  over  them !  The  people  were  disap- 
pointed, and  I  uras  nearly  sick.  I  am  quite 
certain  that  if  the  proposal  to  invite  me  to 
Brooklyn  had  been  made  subsequently  to  that, 
instead  of  before  it,  I  never  should  have  been 
called  to  tJiat  congregation !     I  went  back  to  the 


LECTURES  AND    ADDRESSES.  2$ 

reading  of  manuscript  sermons,  and  doubted  for 
a  good  while  if  I  should  ever  again  try  another 
method.  I  could  not  hazard  another  mortifica- 
tion so  keen  as  that,  or  another  failure  so  com- 
plete. 

However,  after  a  time,  the  old  feeling  revived, 
and  it  seemed  a  shame  to  give  it  up  so.  I 
always  preached  my  weekly  lectures  without 
notes,  or  with  only  brief  ones  ;  and  that  helped 
and  encouraged  me  to  again  try  it  in  the 
church,  as  swimming  in  the  pond  helps  one  by- 
and-by  to  swim  out  fearlessly  in  the  open  sea. 
I  was  in  the  habit,  too,  of  making  occasional 
addresses,  as  other  clergymen  did,  on  public 
anniversary  occasions  ;  and  in  giving  these,  as 
we  always  did,  without  notes,  it  was  continual- 
ly anew  impressed  upon  me  that  it  must  be 
possible  to  do  the  same  in  the  pulpit,  and  that 
there  would  come  with  it  a  certain  increase  of 
independence  and  of  power. 

I  remember  an  occasion,  for  example  —  it 
must  have  been  twenty-four  or  five  years  ago  — 


26  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

im  the  old  Broadway  Tabernacle,  at  an  anni 
versary  of  the  Bible  Society,  when  I  had  a 
conscious  pleasure  and  freedom  in  speaking,  an 
invigoration  of  mind  in  the  very  process  of  speak- 
ing, which  reading  from  a  manuscript  never  had 
given.  The  subject  was  one  familiar  to  me, 
through  my  connection  at  that  time  with  the 
Committee  of  Versions.  The  occasion  was  an 
important  one :  the  assembly  was  very  large, 
crowding  the  platform,  filling  the  house,  abso- 
lutely. It  was  a  responsive,  sympathetic  assem- 
bly, full  of  a  diffused  enthusiasm  which  at- 
tracted and  rewarded  whatever  was  said  that 
was  worth  being  heard.  There  was  a  pull  from 
without,  as  well  as  an  incessant  push  from 
within.  The  audience  and  the  speaker  reacted 
on  each  other.  A  man  could  hardly  help  speak- 
ing easily,  joyfully,  in  such  surroundings ;  and  I 
wished  afterward,  oftentimes,  that  the  same  ex- 
perience which  one  now  and  then  thus  gained 
upon  the  platform  could  be  transferred  to  the 
pulpit,  and  could  there  become  customary. 


RELIGIOUS    INTEREST    HELPFUL.  2") 

After  a  time  there  came  a  growing  religious 
interest,  working  and  widening  throughout  the 
congregation ;  and  that  helped  greatly  to  preach 
without  a  manuscript.  The  people  were  more 
moved  by  the  more  direct  address,  and  wel- 
comed it  eagerly.  My  own  mind  was  more  quick 
with  a  vivid  realization  of  the  meaning  and  the 
importance  of  the  Divine  message.  It  acted 
more  ardently  and  intensely  upon  subjects,  and 
found  it  more  natural  to  speak  of  these  in  words 
which  had  not  been  prearranged  by  the  pen. 
Preacher  and  people  were  all  lifted  by  the 
impulse,  as  the  steamship  is  carried  over  the 
bar  by  the  swelling  tide  which  imperceptibly 
swings  it  upward.  They  were  more  sympa- 
thetic ;  I  was  more  strongly  moved  by  my  sub- 
jects, and  more  intent  on  practical  results :  and 
so  I  began  to  get  hold  of  them,  at  last,  in  this 
mode  of  preaching.  Individuals  would  now  and 
then  tell  me  of  impressions  made  on  them,  or 
on  their  friends,  of  helps  given,  of  new  thoughts 
started,  of  words  that  had  become  warnings  or 


28  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

motives  ;  and  more  frequently  than  not  these 
had  come  from  sermons  unwritten.  So,  though 
far  from  feeling  at  ease,  as  an  habitual  thing, 
when  I  entered  the  pulpit  without  my  notes,  I 
had  an  occasional  sense  of  success  in  dispensing 
with  them,  and  began  to  do  it  with  more  and 
more  of  facility  and  of  confidence. 

When  I  speak  of  "  success,"  Gentlemen,  you 
will  of  course  understand  me  as  speaking  only 
of  relative  success  ;  of  success,  as  compared  with 
previous  failure.  Nobody  can  be  more  perfectly 
aware  than  I  am  that  in  no  other  than  this  lim- 
ited and  personal  sense  have  I  ever  reached 
"  success  ; "  and  there  seems  a  certain  unwar- 
rantable assumption  in  my  speaking  to  you  of  its 
conditions.  But  the  navigator  may  know  the 
route  which  must  be  taken  to  reach  the  North 
Pole,  though  he  himself  has  never  been  there  ; 
and  so  I  think  that  I  have  learned  what  are  the 
necessary  conditions  of  a  success  which  is  far 
enough  from  my  attainment. 

I  used  now  and  then,  at  the  time  I  refer  to,  to 


CONTINUING    EMBARRASSMENT.  2g 

have  this  occasional,  partial  sense,  of  a  relative 
success,  in  preaching  without  notes. 

But  I  was  still  always  embarrassed  by  a 
desjree  of  uncertainty  as  to  how  far  I  should  be 
able  in  the  pulpit  to  develop  my  subject ;  and 
the  amount  of  the  previous  preparation  which 
I  had  made  appeared  to  give  no  measure  and  no 
prophecy  of  the  freedom  in  preaching  which  I 
should  enjoy.  In  fact,  the  two  seemed  often  to 
stand  in  an  inverse  ratio  ;  so  that  the  more  ample 
the  preparation,  the  more  meagre  and  unsatis- 
factory might  be  the  discourse.  I  almost  always 
approached  the  service,  therefore,  with  a  distinct 
timidity  ;  and  was  careful  to  preach  without 
notes  in  the  morning,  if  at  all,  when  I  had  most 
of  freshness  and  strength,  and  when  I  knew  of 
the  written  sermon  held  in  reserve,  on  which  I 
could  fall  back  for  the  second  service,  —  thus 
redeeming  in  part  any  special  failure  which  the 
morning  might  witness. 

This  went  on  for  a  number  of  years ;  till  at 
last,  a  dozen  years  ago  or  so,  after  I  had  been  in 


W        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

Brooklyn  for  sixteen  or  seventeen  years,  I  began 
to  feel  that  growing  sense  of  the  oppressiveness 
of  routine,  and  that  teasing  desire  for  a  change 
of  field,  which  almost  every  minister  feels  after 
many  years  of  continuous  service  in  the  same 
parish.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  people  were 
getting  so  accustomed  to  my  ways  of  conceiving 
and  presenting  truth  that  they  were  now  insen- 
sitive to  them  ;  and  that  some  decided  change 
in  the  teaching  mind  would  be  to  them  of  ser- 
vice. But  that  was  not  the  worst  of  it.  I  felt 
myself  getting  into  ruts,  in  regard  to  my  method 
of  treating  subjects,  my  modes  of  argument, 
expression,  illustration.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
the  mind  itself  was  in  danger  of  drying  up  ;  that 
it  needed  a  decided  and  positive  change,  to  give 
it  impulse,  vivacity,  flexibility,  and  to  prevent  it 
from  becoming  rigid  and  narrow.  In  other 
words,  I  was  growing  restless  ;  and  was  nearly 
persuaded  that  the  people  would  be  better  for  a 
new  mind  in  the  pulpit,  and  that  I  should  be 
better  for  another  field  of  labor.     If  it  had  been 


NEED   OF   SOME   CHANGE.  3 1 


easy  and  right  for  me  to  leave  my  parish,  and 
♦■ake  another,  I  should  almost  certainly  then  have 
done  so.  But  in  the  existing  circumstances 
of  my  church  I  did  not  feel  at  Uberty  to  leave 
it ;  and  the  case  was  one  of  those  in  regard  to 
which  one  has  to  consider,  you  know,  what  Pro- 
fessor Stuart  used  to  call  the  terminus  ad  quern  as 
well  as  the  terminus  a  quo.  So,  as  I  had  neither 
liberty  to  leave,  nor  any  special  invitation  to  go 
elsewhere,  it  seemed  plainly  my  duty  to  stay 
where  I  was,  and  to  find  some  other  way  of  over- 
coming the  tendencies  which  had  begun  to 
embarrass  me. 

The  only  way  that  I  could  think  of  was  to 
make  a  decided  change  in  my  method  of  work- 
ing ;  to  do  thenceforth  habitually,  what  until 
then  I  had  done  only  occasionally  ;  and  to  make 
it  thereafter  my  principal  aim,  in  my  public  min- 
istry, to  present  subjects  to  the  congregation 
without  immediate  help  from  a  manuscript. 
This  involved  important  changes  in  my  whole 
«vay  of  working,  both  before  preaching,  and  in  it ; 


32       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

and  I  thought  might  have  the  effect  which  1 
desired,  on  the  people,  and  on  myself. 

I  communicated  my  purpose,  privately,  to  a 
number  of  the  principal  members  of  the  con- 
gregation, and  gave  them  my  reasons  for  it. 
They  were  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  de- 
cision. It  came  to  be  generally  understood,  be- 
fore long,  that  a  written  sermon  was  never  to 
be  expected  in  the  morning ;  and  after  that  I 
was  not  embarrassed  by  any  surprise  on  the  part 
of  my  hearers  when  they  saw  me  open  the  Bible, 
and  begin  the  discourse,  without  paper  before 
me.  I  still  wrote  for  the  evening-service  ;  but 
that  gradually  became  less  important  in  com- 
parison with  the  morning,  and  the  far  larger 
part  of  my  time  and  force  was  given  to  the 
sermon  which  was  to  be  preached  without  a 
manuscript. 

From  that  time  I  had  more  and  more  jf 
facility  and  freedom  in  preaching  in  this  .vay. 
The  people  became  accustomed  to  it,  and  most 
of  them  preferred  it.     Those  who   came   later 


ACADEMY   OF   MUSIC.  33 

into  the  congregation,  found  me  established  in 
the  practice,  and  expected  nothing  else.  And 
so  that  method  was  finally  fixed,  for  one  service 
on  every  Sunday. 

After  a  number  of  years  of  this  practice,  in 
1869,  while  our  church-edifice  was  being  recon- 
structed, my  congregation  was  thrown  for  many 
months  into  the  Academy  of  Music  for  its  place 
of  worship.  The  seats  there  were  all  free  ;  and 
the  assemblies,  gathered  from  all  parts  of  the 
town,  especially  in  the  evening,  were  large  and 
very  miscellaneous.  One  of  the  Professors  in  the 
Divinity  School  at  Cambridge,  who  was  remon- 
strated with  for  leaving  his  chair  of  theological 
instruction  in  order  to  take  a  seat  in  Congress, 
is  said  to  have  replied,  that  perhaps  the  objector 
was  not  quite  aware  what  the  extent  of  his  op- 
portunity was  as  a  teacher  of  theology.  '  There 
were  indeed  three  men  in  his  class :  one  of  them 
was  a  sceptic,  one  a  dyspeptic,  and  the  third  a 
Swedenborgian.'  Well,  I  had  all  these,  and  a  great 
many  of  other  sorts  and  conditions,  from    the 


34       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 


most  devout  and  intelligent  of  worshippers  to 
the  most  entirely  indifferent  and  careless,  with 
a  larger  proportion  of  unbelievers  than  is  com- 
monly to  be  found  in  a  Sunday  congregation. 

It  was  simply  idle  to  try  to  hold  the  attention 
of  an  audience  so  various,  promiscuous,  and  un- 
trained as  that,  while  reading  from  a  manuscript. 
Numbers  of  them  would  have  laughed  in  my 
face,  and  have  left  the  house.  Certainly,  they 
would  never  have  come  a  second  time.  Insert- 
ing a  manuscript  between  them  and  myself, 
would  have  been  like  cutting  the  telegraph-wires, 
and  putting  a  sheet  of  paper  into  the  gap.  See 
if  you  then  can  send  your  message  on  the  wire  ! 
The  electricity  would  not  pass.  So  I  gave  up 
the  manuscript  on  the  spot,  the  first  night,  and 
preached  thenceforth  both  morning  and  even- 
ing without  any  notes.  I  have  never  written 
!)ut  one  sermon  since ;  and  that  was  for  a  special 
occasion,  outside  altogether  of  my  own  congre- 
gation. 

It  is  an  entire  mistake  to   suppose,  as  some 


FAILURE    OF    HEALTH.  35 

have  done,  that  I  broke  down  in  health  in  con- 
sequence of  this  change,  or  in  consequence  of 
the  new  work  in  the  Academy,  and  of  the  strain 
which  came  with  it.  That  was  due  wholly  to 
other  causes,  and  many  things  contributed  to  it. 
I  had  been  preaching  for  twenty-five  years,  with 
only  the  brief  summer-vacations  in  all  that  time. 
I  had  had  a  large,  an  always  increasing,  pastoral 
work.  For  thirteen  years  I  had  been  one  of  the 
editors  of  a  leading  religious  newspaper.  I  had 
for  many  of  those  years  been  in  the  habit  of  lec- 
turing often,  during  the  winter.  I  had  freely 
accepted  public  responsibilities,  some  of  which 
brought  much  labor  with  them,  in  the  city  which 
I  live  in.  I  was  nearly  at  the  end  of  all  my 
resources,  of  strength  and  nerve-force,  when 
we  began  reconstructing  the  church ;  and  that 
brought  with  it  its  own  anxieties  and  burdensome 
cares.  During  the  winter  at  the  Academy  I  had 
a  succession  of  prostrating  colds,  which  left  me 
at  last  at  a  very  low  point  of  vital  energy.  In 
the  summer  which   followed,  after  we  had  re- 


36  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 


turned  to  the  church,  I  was  visited  with  sudden 
and  heavy  domestic  grief,  from  whose  shock  and 
shadow  I  could  not  rally.  I  was  simply  worn  out, 
with  severe,  long-protracted,  unremitting  hard 
woik  ;  and  I  then  did,  what  I  should  have  done 
years  before,  except  for  my  father's  advanced 
age,  and  my  desire  to  be  near  him  —  I  went  to 
Europe,  for  a  year  and  more,  to  let  the  exhausted 
forces  rally,  and  give  nature  a  chance  to  restore 
the  excessive  vital  waste. 

I  returned  from  Europe  refreshed,  as  I  had 
hoped,  in  body  and  in  mind,  and  resumed  my 
work  according  to  the  method  which  I  have  de- 
scribed ;  and  have  maintained  it,  as  I  said,  ever 
since.  Instead  of  breaking  me  down,  it  had 
enabled  me,  I  am  certain,  to  go  on  at  least  a  year 
or  two  longer  than  I  otherwise  could  have  done  ; 
and  neither  the  people  nor  I  had  the  least  desire 
for  any  change  in  it.  I  shall  certainly  never 
depart  from  it  hereafter,  while  I  continue  to 
preach  at  all. 

I  am  afraid,  Gentlemen,  that  you  will  think  I 


TWO    METHODS    CONTRASTED.  37 

have  dwelt  too  long  on  this  common-place 
experience  of  mine  ;  but  I  have  been  asked  to 
give  you  such  suggestions  as  grow  out  of  this, 
and  so  it  seemed  needful  to  tell  you  at  the  outset 
just  what  it  had  been.  It  is  very  unimportant, 
except  as  it  gives  me  a  certain  right,  perhaps,  to 
speak  of  the  relative  advantages  of  the  two 
modes  of  preaching  —  with  notes,  and  without 
them.  I  hope  I  have  not  seemed  egotistical  in 
it,  for  my  only  desire  is  to  serve  and  help  you  ; 
and  for  that  purpose,  only,  I  have  delayed  upon 
the  matter.  I  wrote  for  many  years,  fully,  and 
carefully.  I  now  write  only  a  brief  outline  of  the 
discourse,  covering  usually  one  or  two  sheets  of 
common  note-paper,  and  have  no  notes  before 
me  in  the  pulpit  —  not  a  line,  or  a  catch-word. 
So  I  think  I  know  how  the  one  method  operates, 
and  how  the  other,  on  both  preacher  and  people  ; 
and  I  see  —  certainly  more  clearly  than  I  used 
to  —  what  is  necessary  to  one's  success  if  he 
would  address  a  public  assembly  without  com- 
mitting  to  memory  what  he  says,  and  without 


4  I'sn^ 


38  PREACHING   WITHOUT  NOTES. 

aid  from  present  notes.  The  ideal  of  that  suc- 
cess we  may  none  of  us  realize.  But  I  think 
we  may  all  of  us  make  some  approach  to  it,  if 
we  earnestly  try. 

Now  for  some  general  suggestions,  growing 
out  of  this  experience,  which  I  shall  present  as 
preliminary  to  others,  more  detailed  and  specific, 
that  I  design  to  offer  hereafter. 

First,  let  me  say :  Never  begin  to  preach  with- 
out notes  with  any  idea  of  saving  yourselves 
work  by  it.  —  If  you  do,  you  will  fail ;  and  you 
will  richly  deserve  to  fail.  Any  suspicion  of  this 
among  your  people  will  destroy  your  hold  on 
them.  Your  own  minds  will  deteriorate ;  and 
your  sermons  will  lose,  not  finish  only,  but  body 
and  vigor. 

Of  course  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  nervous 
fatigue  connected  witji  the  compulsory  use  of 
the  pen  —  especially  of  a  steel-pen,  a  gold-pen, 
or  any  other  with  an  inflexible  handle  —  which  is 
saved  when  a  man  only  writes  as  he  feels  like  it, 
and  not  under  pressure :  and  this  is  an  impor* 


THOUGHTS  AT  ODD  MOMENTS.       39 

tant  gain  to  one  who  has  been  emancipated  from 
notes.  There  is  a  gain  in  release  from  confining 
desk-work,  and  from  constant  bondage  to  pre- 
scribed hours.  A  man  who  writes  his  sermons 
fully  sometimes  becomes  so  wearied  with  the 
intent  application  of  eye  and  hand,  while  mak- 
ing the  manuscript,  that  he  hardly  can  rally  to 
deliver  the  sermon  with  as  much  of  glow  as  he 
gave  it  in  writing.  One  who  trains  his  mind  to 
work  without  the  pen  finds,  after  a  while,  that  he 
can  medi^jate  his  discourses  while  he  is  walking ; 
while  he  is  doing  errands  ;  while  he  is  sitting  in 
the  parlor,  waiting  for  the  friend  on  whom  he 
is  calling.  The  whole  plan  of  a  sermon  will 
sometimes  shape  itself  suddenly  in  his  mind. 
Thoughts  come  to  him  more  and  more  freely,  at 
odd  moments  ;  and  sometimes  these  are  the  best 
he  gets,  as  Goethe  said  that  his  best  thoughts 
came :  '  like  singing  birds,  the  free  children  of 
God,  crying  '  here  we  are !  "  Of  course  this  is 
not  confined  to  one  who  preaches  without  notes. 
It  is  true  also  of  one  who  is  closely  engaged  in 


40        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

preparing  a  manuscript.  But  I  think  this  habit 
of  mind  is  more  common  where  one  meditates 
subjects  without  dependence  on  pencil  or  pen. 
Certainly  I  know  that  such  thoughts  now  come 
to  me  oftener  than  they  did  when  I  always  had  a 
manuscript  lying  in  the  study,  impatient  to  be 
finished.* 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  whatever  of  time  and 
of  force  is  saved,  in  these  ways  or  in  others, 
must  only  be  more  carefully  devoted  to  the  com- 
plete conscious  mastery  of  the  subject  which  one 
intends  to  present,  if  he  is  to  speak  without  notes ; 
so  that  he  knows  it  thoroughly,  has  searched  it 
through,  is  vitally  charged  with  it,  and  has  it 
fully  and  vividly  in  mind.  This  is  absolutely  in- 
dispensable to  any  real  success  in  presenting  it 
to  others ;  and  this  imphes  a  concentrated,  con- 
tinuous, intense  action  of  your  mind  upon  it,  — 
more  so,  I  think,  than  you  would  ordinarily  give  if 
writing  upon  it.  One  does  not  usually,  I  suspect, 
get  his  whole  plan,  in  all  its  bearings,  fully  in 

*  Note  I. 


MORE   VITAL   FORCE   EXPENDED.  4I 

mind,  before  the  process  of  writing  begins.  But 
he  must  do  this  before  he  speaks,  if  he  is  to 
speak  with  any  proper  success. 

Then,  for  a  long  time,  one  must  expect  a 
degree  of  mental  excitement,  and  of  consequent 
mental  exhaustion,  in  uttering  his  sermon,  when 
preaching  without  notes,  which  does  not  attend 
the  reading  of  a  manuscript.  At  the  outset,  at 
any  rate,  the  reader  has  much  the  easier  task  in 
the  matter  of  delivery.  Having  read  his  sermon, 
of  thirty-five  or  forty  minutes,  he  is  generally 
fresh  enough  to  read  it  again,  if  there  were  occa- 
sion. It  is  far  more  exhausting  to  speak  the  same 
thoughts,  with  no  notes  before  you.  Much  more 
of  vital  force  goes  out,  in  the  rapid  and  continuing 
action  of  all  your  powers  on  what  you  are  saying. 
But,  remember,  that  here  is  a  recompense  as  well 
as  a  demand.  For  this  essential  vita.1  force,  going 
forth  on  one's  speech,  is  that  which  makes  words 
life  and  spirit.  It  is,  under  God,  the  converting 
force,  which  quickens,  sways,  inspires  those  to 
whom  it  is  sent,  as  thought  alone  can  never  do 


42  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

It  is  the  power  which  God  employs  as  His  great 
moral  instrument  in  the  world. 

Such  abundant  and  careful  preliminary  prep- 
aration, and  such  a  vital  absorption  of  the  mind 
in  the  subject  while  preaching,  are  needed  to 
conciliate  the  attention,  the  respect,  the  confi- 
dence of  your  hearers.  They  will  be  repulsed, 
and  with  reason,  you  will  lose  all  your  hold  on 
them  —  they  will  swiftly  antagonize  you,  with 
indifference  or  hostility  —  if  they  come  to  sus- 
pect that  you  are  simply  shirking  labor  in 
preaching  without  writing.  This  is  in  fact 
one  chief  reason,  their  suspicion  of  this,  why 
people  are  often  uneasy  and  restless  under 
such  preaching.  My  father  was  a  clergyman 
of  the  old  school,  accustomed  always  to  write 
for  the  pulpit  with  studious  care.  He  was 
ready,  free,  eloquent  in  speech,  in  the  lecture- 
room,  or  on  the  platform.  Some  of  the  most 
stirring  and  animating  addresses  that  I  ever 
heard  from  human  lips  I  have  heard  from  him, 
in  small  assemblies,  on  special  occasions.     But  I 


"  BEATEN   OIL."  43 


think  that  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  always  wrote 
every  word  of  all  his  sermons  ;  and,  for  a  long 
time,  he  looked  with  great  distrust  on  my  pre- 
ferred method  of  preaching.  One  of  his  remark*? 
was,  frequently  repeated  :  "  My  son,  I  was  early 
taught  that  I  must  bring  beaten  oil  into  the 
sanctuary  ; "  and  I  never  could  persuade  him  that 
there  was  any  better  way  of  beating  it  than  by 
using  a  pen  for  a  spoon  !  So,  for  years,  after  I 
was  much  in  the  habit  of  preaching  without  notes 
at  home,  I  always  carried  written  sermons  to 
Braintree,  and  read  them,  as  well  as  I  could,  in 
his  pulpit. 

It  happened,  however,  on  a  special  occa- 
sion, that  he  was  very  desirous  that  I  should 
preach  when  I  had  no  manuscript  with  me.  I 
was  obliged  to  take,  therefore,  the  same  method 
to  which  I  had  been  accustomed  at  home ;  and 
having,  as  far  as  I  could,  charged  my  mind  with 
the  subject,  I  spoke  without  notes.  After  that, 
he  would  never  let  me  do  any  thing  else,  when  I 
jTcached  lor  him.     He  saw  that  the  subject  had 


44       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

been  carefully  considered  ;  that  the  sermon  was 
not  being  hastily  manufactured,  on  the  spot,  but 
was  the  result  of  serious  preceding  reflection 
and  study :  and  that  was  all  that  he  needed  to 
know.  Then,  he  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the 
freer  and  more  forceful  spontaneous  utterance, 
and  even  regretted  that  he  had  not  himself 
adopted  the  same  method,  earlier  in  life.  So, 
you  see,  Gentlemen,  I  have  made  at  least  one 
convert ! 

Such  persistent  and  strenuous  mental  exer- 
tion on  your  subjects  is  needful,  too,  to  your  own 
mind,  to  discipline,  widen,  invigorate  that,  and 
make  it  fit  to  master  themes,  and  speak  to  men. 
Whoever  has  thoroughly  mastered  one  subject, 
will  thereby  be  fitted  to  grapple  others  :  but  a 
kind  of  general  mental  flabbiness  is  the  sure  re- 
sult of  any  let-up  from  austere  and  exacting  men- 
tal discipline.  Never  suffer  yourselves,  there 
fore,  to  speak,  as  Strafford  said,  '  from  the  teeth, 
outward'  Your  speech  \ril'  certainly  become 
stale,  fiat,  and  unprofiCab!^  it  you  do      Conceive 


HABIT   OF   WRITING.  45 

your  subject  clearly,  get  hold  of  it  firmly,  let 
your  mind  be  thoroughly  charged  and  vitalized 
with  the  proper  force  of  it  ;  let  the  sentiment 
which  it  inspires,  and  the  action  which  it 
prompts,  allure,  incite,  possess  your  souls ;  and 
then  speak,  out  of  the  fulness  of  your  mind, 
with  a  heart  warmed  by  the  truth  you  have 
considered,  and  which  you  now  are  eager  to 
present. 

And,  Secondly  :  Always  be  careful  to  keep  up 
the  habit  of  writing,  with  whatever  of  skill, 
elegance,  and  force,  you  can  command. 

You  will  need  this  for  the  enlarging  and 
refining  of  your  vocabulary,  if  for  nothing  else. 
Without  it,  you  will  almost  certainly  fall  into  the 
habit  of  using  cheap  and  common  words  ;  and 
of  using  even  these  with  only  a  rough  approxi- 
mation to  their  meaning,  with  no  subtle  or  pre- 
cise discrimination  between  them.  Mr.  Choate 
once  said  to  one  of  his  students:  "You  don't 
want  a  diction  gathered  from  the  newspapers, 
caught  from  the  air,  common  and  unsuggestivc ; 


46       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

but  you  want  one  whose  eveiy  word  is  full- 
freighted  with  suggestion  and  association,  with 
beauty  and  power."  *  Some  words  contain  a 
whole  history  in  themselves.  Panic,  —  it  carries 
us  back  to  the  day  of  Marathon.  Panegyric,  Pas- 
quinade —  there  are  multitudes  of  such  words, 
opulent,  microcosmic,  in  which  histories  are 
imaged,  which  record  civilizations.  Others  recall 
to  us  great  passages  of  eloquence,  or  of  noble 
poetry,  and  bring  in  their  train  the  whole  splen- 
dor of  such  passages,  when  they  are  uttered. f 

We  cannot  be  always  using  such  words.  The 
plainer  are  better,  for  common  service.  But 
when  these  richer,  remoter  words,  come  into  the 
discourse,  they  make  it  ample  and  royal.  They 
are  like  glistening  threads  of  gold,  interwoven 
with  the  commoner  tissue.  There  is  a  certain 
spell  in  them,  for  the  memory,  the  imagination. 
Elect  hearers  will  be  warmed  and  won  by  them. 
But  we  cannot  get  such  words,  and  keep  them, 

•  Parker's  Reminiscences  :  p.  249. 
t  Note  II. 


FORMATION    OF   SENTENCES.  47 

except  by  writing.  Reading  will  put  them  into 
our  hands.  Only  careful  writing  separates,  sigf- 
nalizes,  infixes  them  in  the  mind,  makes  them 
our  possession  forever.  We  pass  over  them,  as 
we  read.     We  pick  them  out,  with  the  pen.* 

So  always  be  careful  to  write,  habitually  :  not 
sermons,  necessarily ;  essays,  analyses,  articles 
for  papers,  lectures  if  you  like  —  whatever  most 
attracts  you  to  the  use  of  the  pen. 

You  will  need  the  constant  discipline  of  such 
writing  to  enable  you  to  form  sentences  rapidly 
and  securely,  —  sentences  which  shall  be  firm, 
well-proportioned,  consistent,  complete.  Noth- 
ing is  more  absolutely  fatal  to  the  impression  of 
a  spoken  discourse  than  a  succession  of  halting 
broken-backed  sentences.  They  are  like  broken- 
winged  birds,  hindering  the  flight  of  the  whole 
flock ;  almost  like  broken  rails  on  the  track, 
which  fling  the  entire  train  into  a  heap.  When 
subject  and  predicate,  protasis  and  apodosis,  are 
jumbled  together  in  inextricable   confusion,  or 

•  Notes  III.  and  IV. 


48  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 


are  hopelessly  disjointed  from  each  other,  no 
one  will  long  try  to  follow  the  speaker.  At  the 
beginning  of  every  sentence  one  should  be  able 
to  look  to  the  end  of  it,  that  he  himself  may  be 
carried  on,  and  his  hearers  with  him,  with  ease 
and  steadiness,  to  its  foreseen  conclusion. 

Not  all  men  have  the  wit  and  wisdom  of 
Father  Taylor,  the  famous  preacher  to  sailors  in 
Boston.  It  is  told  of  him  that  once  getting 
involved  in  a  sentence,  where  clause  after  clause 
had  been  added  to  each  other,  and  one  had 
branched  off  in  this  direction  and  another  in 
that,  till  he  was  hopelessly  entangled,  and  the 
starting  point  was  quite  out  of  sight,  he  paused, 
and  shook  himself  free  of  the  perplexity  by 
saying :  "  Brethren,  I  don't  know  exactly  where 
I  went  in,  in  beginning  this  sentence ;  and  I 
don't  in  the  least  know  where  I'm  coming  out ; 
but  one  thing  I  do  know,  I'm  bound  for  the 
KINGDOM  OF  Heaven  !  "  So  he  took  a  wholly 
new  departure,  and  left  the  broken-backed  centi- 
pede of  a  sentence  lying  where  it  might,  in  the 


THE   DISCIPLINE   OF   WRITING.  49 

track  behind  him.  Perhaps  that  is  as  good  a 
way  as  any  of  getting  out  of  such  confusion,  if 
one  ever  is  caught  in  it  But  it  is  better  never 
to  be  so  caught.  Father  Taylor  himself  could 
not  have  repeated  the  experiment  often. 

Sentences  may  be  either  long  or  short,  simple 
or  complex,  but  they  should  always  be  essen- 
tially periodic,  having  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and 
an  end  ;  and  the  habit  of  forming  them  easily, 
naturally,  comes  with  the  diligent  use  of  the  pen.* 

One  needs  too  this  discipline  of  careful  writ- 
ing to  systematize  his  thoughts ;  to  make  his 
analysis  of  subjects,  or  his  arrangement  of  argu- 
ments, clear,  enlightening,  satisfactory. 

Without  this,  he  will  be  constantly  in  danger 
of  falling  into  the  habit  of  loose,  vague,  ineffect- 
ual thinking,  —  if  it  can  be  called  thinking,  at 
all  —  with  no  sharpness,  or  system,  or  synthesis 
ii  it.  The  pen  gives  march  to  the  mind.  It 
teaches  exactness,  discrimination,  and  helps 
the  wk(?le  constructive  faculty.  It  is  a  great 
•  Note  V. 


50  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

educator.  Better  give  up  half  your  library  tha» 
let  the  pen  fall  into  disuse.  In  fact  your  libmry 
will  lose  more  than  half  its  value,  unless  you 
use  the  pen  to  represent  and  preserve  the  results 
of  your  reading.  You  must  not  fumble  over 
subjects,  but  grasp  them ;  not  glance  at  them, 
but  resolve  them :  and  the  pen  is  the  instrument 
with  which  to  do  it. 

Dr.  Channing  has  some  admirable  words  on 
the  benefits  of  composition  to  the  writer  himself, 
which  I  will  read  if  you  allow  me  —  though  I 
know  how  hazardous  it  is  to  introduce  his  pol- 
ished periods  into  the  midst  of  a  talk  like  this. 
He  says  :  "  We  doubt  whether  a  man  ever  brings 
his  faculties  to  bear  with  their  whole  force  on  a 
subject,  until  he  writes  upon  it.  .  .  .  By  attempt- 
ing to  seize  his  thoughts,  and  fix  them  in  an 
enduring  form,  he  finds  them  vague  and  unsatis- 
factory, to  a  degree  which  he  did  not  suspect, 
and  toils  for  a  precision  and  harmony  of  views, 
of  which  he  never  before  felt  the  need.  He 
places  his  subject  in  new  lights ;  submits  it  to  a 


BENEFIT   OF   COMPOSITION.  5  I 

searching  analysis  ;  compares  and  connects  it 
with  his  various  knowledge ;  seeks  for  it  new 
illustrations  and  analogies ;  weighs  objections  ; 
and,  through  these  processes,  often  arrives  at 
higher  truths  than  he  at  first  aimed  to  illus- 
trate. Dim  conceptions  grow  bright.  Glorious 
thoughts,  which  had  darted  as  meteors  through 
the  mind,  are  arrested,  and  gradually  shine  with 
a  sun-like  splendor,  with  prolific  energy,  on  the 
intellect  and  heart.  .  .  .  Even  when  composition 
yields  no  such  fruits,  it  is  still  a  great  intellectual 
help.  It  always  favors  comprehensive  and  sys- 
tematical views.  The  laborious  distribution  of 
a  great  subject,  so  as  to  assign  to  each  part  or 
topic  its  just  position  and  due  proportion,  is 
singularly  fitted  to  give  compass  and  persevering 
force  of  thought."  * 

There  is  profound  truth  in  these  words.  They 
ought  to  be  always  borne  in  mind  by  one  who  is 
training  himself  to  speak  without  notes  He 
must  discipline  his  mind  by  the  use  of  the  pen, 

•  Channing's  W  irks,  vol.  i.  pp.  263,  264. 


52        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

that  the  thoughts  which  subsequently  rise  to  his 
lips  may  be  sound  and  clear,  and  worth  the 
uttering.  Nothing  but  the  pen  can  break  up 
books  for  us,  and  transmute  them  into  personal 
knowledge  and  thought.* 

And  further.  Thirdly  :  Be  perfectly  frank 
with  your  people  in  regard  to  this  matter  of  your 
method  of  preaching ;  so  putting  yourselves  at 
once  in  right  relations  with  them  about  it. 

Let  them  know  that  you  design  to  preach 
without  notes,  and  without  memorizing  the  ser- 
mon ;  and  give  them  your  reasons.  Tell  them 
that  you  have  the  strongest  conviction  that  your 
business  in  the  pulpit  is  not  to  read  essays,  but 
to  fill  your  mind  with  clear,  profound,  quicken- 
ing impressions  of  those  sublime  truths  which 
the  Gospel  reveals,  and  then  to  declare  these 
to  tl  e  congregation,  as  the  Spirit  of  God  shall 
give  you  utterance.  Ask  them  to  bear  with 
you,  if  at  first  you  seem  to  fail  to  do  justice  to 
your  subject,  or  to  your  own  thought  of  it ;  and 
«  Note  VI. 


ONE    SOURCE    OF    DIFFICULTY.  53 

t ")  wait  with  patience  until  you  are  stronger,  and 
are  able  more  fully  to  instruct  and  inspire  them, 
for  the  worship  of  God.  So  you  will  have  a 
free  field  for  your  effort,  and  be  unembarrassed 
by  their  reluctance  or  their  surprise. 

Many  eminent  clergymen  speak  admirably  in 
the  lecture-room,  or  on  the  platform,  who  are 
abashed  and  disconcerted  in  the  pulpit,  if  they 
have  not  a  manuscript,  because  of  their  con- 
sciousness that  there  the  people  expect  this. 

The  best  debater  whom  I  ever  heard  among 
American  ministers — if  I  should  mention  his 
name  all  who  know  him  would  assent  to  the 
praise  —  once  told  me  that  he  never  felt  at  ease 
in  the  pulpit  without  notes  before  him,  because 
his  people  were  accustomed  to  these,  and  would 
feel,  in  the  absence  of  them,  that  his  preparation 
had  been  incomplete,  and  that  the  service  was 
insufficient.  A  very  eminent  clergyman  of  this 
city,  who  sustains  important  relations  to  this 
institution,  has  told  mc  the  same  thing,  in  sub- 
stance, of  himself,  within  a  few  weeks.    With  aU 


54  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

his  culture,  all  his  power,  and  all  the  prestige 
given  by  many  honorable  years  of  Christian  ser- 
vice,—  though  speaking  on  the  platform  with 
ease,  elegance,  and  continual  success,  —  it  has 
always  been  an  awkward  thing  to  him  to  stand 
in  his  pulpit  without  a  manuscript.  Even  Dr. 
Bethune  —  wonderfully  free,  versatile,  engaging, 
impressive,  as  he  was,  in  almost  all  forms  of 
public  address  —  I  think  invariably  took  notes 
with  him  to  the  pulpit :  that  even  if  he  did  not 
use  them  he  might  have  them  on  the  desk,  opem 
before  him. 

The  sympathies  of  a  congregation  are  ex 
tremely  swift  and  subtle.  If  a  few  are  surprised, 
disappointed,  restless,  when  they  see  you  in  the 
pulpit  without  a  manuscript,  if  they  turn  away 
SIS  careless  of  your  words  and  expectant  of  fail- 
ure, the  feeling  will  propagate  itself  rapidly  and 
far ;  and  to  speak  freely,  with  self-possession,  in 
the  face  of  such  indifference  or  distrust,  will  be 
very  difficult.  It  is  like  trying  to  laugh  aloud  in 
a  vacuum.    You  want  the  interest  on  the  part 


NEED    OF    SYMPATHY.  55 

of  your  people,  to  stimulate  your  powers.  You 
want  the  quickening  warmth  of  sympathy.  One 
does  see,  I  know,  roses  and  pinks  blooming  on 
the  terraces  around  Genoa  in  the  month  of 
December,  with  ice  near  them,  half-an-inch 
thick,  on  the  basins  of  fountains.  But  that  has 
always  seemed  to  me  an  almost  unaccountable 
physical  fact.  And  certainly  the  mind  will  not 
germinate  and  bloom  in  an  atmosphere  full  of 
icy  indifference.  The  spirit  of  the  speaker  will 
inevitably  be  affected  by  the  doubt  and  disap- 
pointment which  encircle  and  chill  him.  He  will 
begin  to  hesitate,  because  he  is  thus  hindered ; 
and  very  likely  will  begin,  before  many  minutes, 
to  feel  his  heart  beat,  and  his  unsustained  head 
reel  and  swim.  When  that  comes  to  pass  he 
had  better  sit  down. 

It  is  far  better  to  avoid  such  manacles  and 
miseries  at  the  very  start,  by  putting  yourself  on 
your  feet  and  at  ease  with  your  people  at  once, 
through  their  thorough  understanding  of  what 
you  mean  to  do,  and  of  the  reasons  which  move 


56  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

you  to  do  it.  Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  by 
them  that  at  one  of  the  services,  at  least  —  the 
morning,  I  think,  being  usually  the  better  — 
you  will  preach  without  notes.  Then  you  won't 
have  to  contend,  at  any  rate,  against  their  disap- 
pointment. The  difficulties  you  meet  afterward 
will  be  only  intrinsic,  and  not  adventitious.  And 
that  of  itself  will  be  a  great  gain. 

And  Fourthly  :  Discharge  your  mind  of  the 
sermoft  when  once  you  have  preached  it ;  so  keej> 
ing  the  mind  free  and  open  for  other  subjects 
succeeding  that  one. 

I  cannot  give  you  any  rule  by  which  to  do 
this.  I  only  know  that  it  can  be  done,  though  it 
is  not  easy ;  that  the  habit  of  doing  it  can  be 
formed,  like  the  habit  of  dining  at  a  certain 
hour,  or  of  walking  at  a  certain  pace,  or  like  any 
other  habit  which  we  make  for  ourselves.  And 
I  know  that  it  is  indispensable  to  one  who  would 
speak  energetically,  usefully,  without  help  from 
his  notes. 

The  lawyer  does  it,  all  the  time.     All  sorts  of 


CHANGE   OF    SUBJECTS.  57 


cases  come  successively  before  him,  and  each,  in 
its  turn,  fully  occupies  his  mind  :  cases  of  in- 
surance ;  cases  involving  felony  —  murder,  theft, 
forgery,  barratry,  libel,  or  what  not ;  cases  of 
patent-rights  ;  cases  involving  the  title  to  lands ; 
horse-cases,  perhaps.  While  he  is  arguing  one, 
his  thoughts  are  full  of  it.  The  next  eliminates 
it  wholly  from  his  mind ;  and  the  one  is  for- 
gotten when  the  other  is  before  him. 

A  minister  must  learn  to  do  much  the  same 
thing.  It  is  not  easy,  as  I  said.  I  used  to  be 
more  embarrassed  at  this  point  than  at  almost 
any  other.  But  I  found  that  one  great  secret  of 
success  in  doing  what  was  needed  was  to  take  a 
second  subject  very  different  from  the  first : 
then  the  expulsive  power  of  the  new  subject,  oc- 
cupying the  thoughts,  freed  them  from  embar- 
rassing reminiscences  of  the  other.  If  you  have 
preached  on  a  theme  of  doctrine,  for  example, 
in  the  morning,  take  some  point  of  Christian 
practice  for  your  theme  in  the  evening.  If 
one   discourse  is  preceptive  and  hortatory,  lei 


58        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

another  be  narrative,  in  its  structure.  If  one  is 
closely  argumentative,  let  the  next  be  a  careful 
yet  free  exposition  of  a  parable  or  a  psalm.  So 
you  will  find  that  the  mind  releases  itself  from 
the  one  subject,  by  taking  another  entirely  dis- 
tinct ;  its  natural  resilience  is  helped  and  stimu- 
lated, and  you  cease  to  be  weighted  with  your 
previous  processes. 

In  this  way,  or  some  other,  you  must  secure 
the  result  which  I  indicate.  Otherwise,  you  will 
be  all  the  while  in  danger  of  repeating  preced- 
ing trains  of  thought,  of  applying  the  intellec- 
tual methods  proper  to  one  subject  to  anothei 
widely  different,  and  of  wholly  failing  to  widen 
and  enrich  your  mind.  You  will  be  likely,  even, 
to  get  by  degrees  a  set  of  pet  subjects,  of  recur- 
ring phrases,  and  of  familiar  illustrations  ;  and 
to  feel  yourself,  and  to  make  your  people  feel  as 
well,  that  your  mind  is  becoming  narrow  and 
unproductive  through  your  method  of  preaching. 
Applying  the  same  general  modes  of  treatment 
to  all  sorts  of  subjects,  and  getting  the  subjects 


PRACTICE   OF   "EVANGELISTS."  59 


themselves  conLnually  mixed  and  tangled  in 
your  thoughts,  your  whole  force  will  dwindle. 

The  "evangelists"  of  forty  years  ago  were 
accustomed  to  get  a  set  of  sermons  —  enough 
perhaps  for  four  or  six  weeks  of  daily  preaching 
—  and  then  to  go  from  place  to  place  delivering 
these.  They  investigated  no  fresh  subjects,  but 
repeated  the  discourses  which  they  had  prepared, 
over  and  over.  The  result  was  that  the  first 
impression  made  by  them  was  always  vivid  and 
energetic  ;  but  they  became  less  convincing  and 
powerful  as  they  went  on,  till  at  last  their  minds 
were  as  dull  and  flameless  as  a  burnt  cinder. 
They  were  some  of  them  powerful  men,  in  their 
day :  but  their  very  names  are  now  almost  for- 
gotten ;  and  those  who  continued  in  that  form  of 
service  left  no  more  impression  of  themselves 
on  the  religious  thought  of  the  country,  or  on  its 
theological  literature,  than  a  bird's  wing  leaves 
on  the  air. 

You  must  keep  the  mind  fresh  and  hospitable 
for  new  subjects,  keep  it  all  the  time  alert  and 


60        PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

advancing,  if  you  are  to  preach  without  a  manu- 
script with  any  success.  Each  sermon  must 
have  its  own  vitahty,  and  stand  apart  from  every 
other.  You  must  be  as  free  in  discussing  each 
succeeding  subject  as  you  were  in  treating  the 
one  before  ;  and  in  order  to  this  the  sermon  once 
preached  must  be  thereafter  wholly  and  swiftly 
discharged  from  the  thoughts. 

There  is  a  certain  disadvantage  here,  or  what 
may  appear  such,  in  preaching  without  notes. 
It  relates  to  exchanges  of  your  pulpit  for  others. 
When  one  writes  his  sermons,  an  exchange  of 
pulpits  means  a  week's  or  a  half-week's  less  work 
in  the  year.  The  sermons  already  prepared  are 
at  hand ;  and  the  principal  duty  is  to  read  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  one  often  finds  quite  as 
niuch  difficulty,  I  do  not  know  but  more,  in 
re-charging  the  mind  with  a  previous  sermon, 
to  be  preached  in  exchange,  than  he  did  in  pre- 
paring it  at  the  outset,  if  there  exists  no  manu- 
script of  it.  To  re-absorb  is  harder  than  to 
produce.     It  is  more  difficult  in  preaching  it  the 


THE   MATTER   OF   EXCHANGES.  6 1 

seconc'  time  to  keep  the  recollective  force  of 
the  mind  in  abeyance,  and  to  let  the  construct- 
ive, creative  forces  freely  work.  I  confess  that 
to  this  day  an  exchange  of  pulpits  rather  dis- 
mays me.  I  should  always  prefer  to  stay  at 
home. 

However,  one  can  acquire  more  and  more 
facility  in  doing  this ;  and  he  will  always  find 
that  the  more  vitally,  thoroughly,  he  fills  his 
mind  with  the  subject  which  he  treats,  at  home 
or  abroad,  the  more  effective  he  is  in  preaching. 
So  I  don't  think  that  there  is  here  any  real  dis- 
advantage, except  to  the  lazy.  I  verily  believe, 
Young  Gentlemen,  that  the  kingdom  of  God 
advances  more  on  spoken  words  than  it  does 
on  essays  written  and  read ;  on  words,  that  is, 
in  which  the  present  feeling  and  thought  of  the 
teaching  mind  break  into  natural  and  forceful 
expression.  There  is  always  reward,  therefore, 
as  well  as  work,  in  fitting  oneself  for  performing 
this  office ;  and  the  work  itself  should  only  be  to 
us  an  incentive. 


62       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

Fifthly  :  Never  be  discouraged  by  what  seems 
to  you,  perhaps  to  others,  comparative  failure. 

Such  failure  occurs  everywhere.  Lawyers 
lose  cases,  and  physicians  lose  patients.  Even 
editors,  it  is  said,  sometimes  write  articles  thai 
are  not  absolutely  brilliant  and  powerful,  up  to 
the  line  of  their  highest  capacity.  The  painter 
fails  to  secure  a  good  portrait,  though  he  has 
such  a  subject  as  Gerrit  Smith  or  Charlotte 
Cushman.  The  architect's  mind  gets  into  a 
cramp,  and  he  can  do  nothing  in  planning  the 
building  to  his  own  satisfaction.  Men  who 
write  sermons  fail,  at  times,  as  well  as  those  who 
preach  without  notes.  They  write  in  a  languid 
and  inert  state  ;  they  quarrel  with  the  discourses 
while  they  preach  them  ;  very  likely  they  burn 
them  when  they  are  done.  My  father  once 
burned  four  hundred  at  a  flash  ;  and  I  always 
honored  him  for  it. 

So  don't  be  discouraged,  as  if  it  were  a  thing 
that  never  happened  to  any  other  sort  of  work- 
man if  you  fail  in  your  effort  when  treating  a 


FINE   PROCESSES    INEFFECTIVE,  63 

subject  without  a  manuscript.  It  is  not  impos- 
sible that  what  seems  to  you  failure  may  appear 
quite  otherwise  to  your  people.  They  may  be 
most  impressed  by  that  with  which  you  are  most 
discontented.  The  train  of  thought  which  had 
interested  your  mind,  but  which  would  not  come 
back  while  you  were  speaking,  would  have  been 
too  subtle  and  refined  for  your  hearers.  The 
commoner  thoughts  which  you  were  obliged  to 
substitute  for  it  reached  some  of  them  more 
effectively.  The  fine  processes,  in  which  you  had 
rejoiced  but  which  you  forgot,  would  have  been 
too  delicate.  The  bolder  broad-axe  style  of 
treatment,  to  which  you  resorted  but  of  which 
you  were  ashamed,  did  better  service.  The 
most  numerous  and  inspiriting  echoes  often 
come  back  from  what  you  esteemed  your  poor- 
est work  :  and  you  find  to  your  surprise  that 
hearts  were  comforted,  despondencies  were  dis- 
pelled, faltering  wills  received  fresh  impulse, 
from  the  very  sermon  which  to  yeu  appeared  a 
perfect  failure.^ 

•  Note  Va 


(34  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

At  any  rate  remember  this  :  that  your  busi- 
ness is  to  do  the  best  you  can  in  the  preaching 
of  the  Gospel,  every  time  you  stand  in  the  pul- 
pit; and  if  you  are  conscious  that  you  have 
done  that,  before  the  sermon  and  in  the  sermon, 
then  let  that  suffice.  If  you  feel  that  you  have 
failed  of  the  success  which  you  hoped  for,  if 
disparaging  remarks  come  back  to  you  from 
others,  be  never  discouraged ;  and  certainly 
never  get  morbid  about  it.  "  In  your  patience 
possess  ye  your  souls  : "  if  your  Greek  Professor 
will  allow  the  translation,  '  by  your  endurance, 
get  full  possession,  and  perfect  mastery,  of  your 
own  souls.'  That  is  the  first  step  toward  get- 
ting an  equal  mastery  over  others.  "  Quit  you 
like  men  ;  be  strong."  "  Forgetting  the  things 
which  are  behind,  reach  forth  "  —  stretch  forth, 
bending  forward,  as  the  racer  toward  the  goal  — 
unto  those  which  are  before. 

Remember  the  pains  men  take  to  train  them- 
selves in  other  and  lower  departments  of  effort, 
and  be  ashamed  if  you  are  not  willing  to  give  to 


SELF-DISCIPLINE  PROPER.  6$ 

this  grandest  office  on  earth  the  labor  and  self- 
discipline  which  are  needed  for  success  in  it.  I 
see  the  athlete,  the  gymnast,  the  rope-walker, 
the  man  who  is  to  swing  upon  the  trapeze, 
developing  each  muscle,  giving  every  nerve  its 
fitting  training,  for  the  feats  they  accomplish, 
until  the  results  are  simply  amazing ;  I  remem- 
ber the  tough  pugilistic  expression  which  Paul 
employs,  "  I  keep  under  the  body,"  v7tw7ita.^<o,  — 
I  beat  it  black  and  blue,  if  needful  —  and  bring 
it  to  subjection ;  and  then  I  think  with  shame 
how  few  and  slight,  in  comparison  are  the 
efforts  which  we  make  for  success  in  our  call- 
ing. I  remember  a  sword-dance  which  I  once 
saw  at  Wiirzburg,  in  Bavaria,  performed  by  some 
Arabian  gymnasts,  leaping  over  and  among  the 
gleaming,  sharp,  and  cruel  blades  which  would 
have  instantly  drunk  the  life  from  you  or  me, 
but  amid  which  they  lightly  sprang  and  danced, 
as  if  they  had  been  stalks  of  thistle;  and  I  say 
to  myself,  and  repeat  it  to  you,  How  ready 
should  we  be  to  give  ourselves  a  training  for 


66  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

our  work  as  much  more  exact  and  thorough 
than  theirs  as  our  work  is  more  important ! '  * 

If  you  do  this,  in  the  final  result  you  will  not 
fail ;  and  if,  in  your  preliminary  efforts,  you  now 
and  then  do  fail,  be  never  discouraged.  Make 
the  failure  a  reason  for  more  intense  succeeding 
effort ;  a  wing,  not  a  weight ;  a  spur,  to  stimu- 
late to  fresh  endeavor,  and  not  a  stiletto,  to  stab 
out  the  life ! 

But,  Finally,  Gentlemen :  Do  no  violence  to 
your  own  nature ;  —  and  if  you  find,  after  suffi- 
cient conscientious  trial,  that  you  can  do  more 
useful  service  with  the  pen  than  without  it,  then 
use  the  pen,  without  reluctance,  without  reserve, 
and  be  thankful  that  you  have  it. 

There  are  some  men,  no  doubt,  who  can  never 
acquire  complete  self-possession  in  presence  of 
an  audience,  so  as  to  be  at  ease  and  in  vigor 
when  addressing  large  numbers  face  to  face. 
They  are  fewer,  I  am  confident,  than  is  commonly 
supposed.  But  there  are  some  such  ;  who  can 
*  Note  VIII. 


USE   OF   THE   PEN.  6^ 

hardly,  at  any  rate,  prepare  themselves  for  this 
office  without  such  a  martyrdom  as  they  are  not 
called  to  ;  while  the  same  men  may  be  swift, 
bold,  powerful,  with  the  pen,  and  in  reading  their 
writings  may  be  very  effective.  It  would  be  a 
wanton  waste  of  time,  if  not  indeed  a  sin  against 
nature,  for  such  men  to  give  up  their  notes  in 
the  pulpit.  They  ought  to  use  them,  and  to  be 
grateful  to  God  for  this  means  of  usefulness. 
The  pen  is  a  prodigious  power  in  the  world ;  an 
invincible  moral  and  social  force ;  a  real  lever 
to  lift  the  race  forward.  It  has  blessed  all  times, 
since  man  first  discovered  the  use  of  the  alphabet. 
God  Himself  has  put  honor  upon  it,  in  writing 
His  law  on  tables  of  stone,  and  not  merely  speak- 
ing it  in  articulate  tones.  He  has  honored  it  in 
the  gospels,  preserving  by  it  the  words  of  His 
Son.  Any  man  should  be  glad  and  proud  to  use 
it,  for  Him  from  whom  the  power  comes. 

I  have  never  believed  it  the  best  plan  for  all 
ministers  to  preach  without  notes.  I  only  think 
it  better  for  some.     And  my  remarks,  now  and 


68       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

hereafter,  are  intended  only  for  those  among  you 
who  think  that  it  may  be  better  for  them.  If 
you  think  so,  I  shall  be  delighted  to  say  any 
word  that  may  help  you  in  your  effort.  For  really 
I  think  the  work  you  contemplate  as  great  a 
work  as  ever  is  given  to  men  on  earth  :  to  bring 
Divine  truths,  with  earnest  utterance,  to  human 
souls.  Never  look  upon  your  congregation  as  so 
many '  cabbage-heads,'  as  some  one  has  inconsid 
erately  said,  but  always  look  on  them  as  immor- 
tal intelligences,  each  one  of  whom  shall  live 
forever !  and  then  bring  all  the  power  you  can  to 
urge  them  to  righteousness,  through  thoughtful, 
fervent,  inspiring  speech.  It  is  the  noblest  of 
human  errands.  Whether,  therefore,  you  do 
your  work  with  notes  or  without  them,  do  it 
courageously,  earnestly,  with  devotion  ;  with  a 
glad  sense  of  the  greatness  of  it,  and  a  full  con- 
secration of  every  force  and  faculty  to  it. 

If  I  might  change  one  letter  in  a  precept  of 
St.  Paul,  I  should  say :  "  One  man  esteemeth  one 
way  above  another ;    another   man    esteemeth 


THE    WORK    NOBLE.  69 


every  way  alike.  Let  every  man  be  fully  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind."  And  whichever  way  you 
finally  select,  strive  always  to  be  able  to  say: 
"  Whether  we  live,  we  live  unto  the  Lord ;  and 
whether  we  die,  we  die  unto  the  Lord.  Whether 
we  live,  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's." 

Working  for  the  Master  in  this  high  spirit, 
the  work  which  you  do  will  be  always  noble ;  and 
the  reward  which  comes  after  it  will  be  sure, 
and  immortal! 


SECOND    LECTURE. 


Mr.  President :  Young  Gentlemen :  — 

I  am  very  happy  to  meet  you  here  again,  —  the 
more  so,  as  an  hour  ago,  while  I  was  drifting 
about  the  Bay,  I  thought  it  very  doubtful  if  I 
should  be  able  to  meet  you  at  all.  The  fact  is 
that  you  people  who  live  on  the  wrong  side  of 
the  East  River  are  apt  to  get  isolated  —  if 
you  will  pardon  the  pronunciation  —  in  such 
weather  as  this ;  and  we,  who  live  where  we 
ought  to,  find  it  hard  work  to  get  to  you. 

I  ought  perhaps,  to  add,  before  beginning 
upon  my  subject  this  afternoon,  that  I  have 
been  occupied,  to-day,  before  leaving  home,  with 
some  of  those  sad  and  exacting  duties  of  which 
every  minister  meets  so  many,  which  for  the 
tim»  wholly  occupy  his  mind,  and  draw  largely 

70 


SPEAKING   TO   STUDENTS.  /I 

upon  his  sympathies  ;  so  that  you  may  find  me, 
I  fear,  even  less  prepared  than  I  should  otherwise 
have  been  to  speak  to  you  on  the  theme  before 
us.  I  shall  trust  to  your  kindness  to  excuse  the 
defects  which  you  may  observe. 

I  am  again  surprised  by  finding  present  not 
only  the  students  of  this  institution,  to  whom,  as 
being  younger  than  myself,  I  had  thought  it  pos- 
sible that  I  might  say  something  which  should  be 
of  more  or  less  service  in  their  coming  work,  but 
also  these  distinguished  men  —  Professors,  Pas- 
tors, Secretaries,  Editors,  Presidents  of  Colleges, 
Lawyers,  Teachers,  and  eminent  Merchants, 
whom  I  have  not  come  prepared  to  address,  I 
can  only  say  that  when  I  am  invited  to  breakfast 
or  lunch  I  do  not  go  dressed  for  an  evening  din- 
ner-party ;  and  when  I  am  asked  to  speak  to 
students,  who  may  not  know  even  as  much  as 
myself,  I  do  not  prepare  myself  to  speak  to 
others  who  know  much  more.  I  long  ago  found 
cut  that  when  a  Committee  ask  one  to  '  make  a 
few  remarks,'  what  they  mean  is  '  an  address  of 


72  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

half-an-hour.'  But  I  certainly  thought  that  I  was 
perfectly  safe  in  literally  accepting  the  kind  invi- 
tation of  these  Professors  and  Doctors  of  Divin- 
ity, and  coming  to  speak  to  students  only. 

At  any  rate,  I  shall  stick  to  the  programme, 
and  "  talk,"  as  I  intended,  without  attempting 
any  studied  and  elaborate  address,  suitable  for 
these  gentlemen  accomplished  in  their  professions. 

Let  me  say,  still  further,  that  after  my  rapid 
talk  of  last  week  I  was  pursued  with  the  fear 
that  I  must  have  seemed  egotistical  in  it ;  as  if 
I  quite  over-estimated  the  consequence  of  what- 
ever experience  I  have  had,  in  the  matter  of 
preaching  without  my  notes.  I  hope,  however, 
that  you  did  me  the  justice  to  look  at  the  thing 
from  my  point  of  view,  and  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  I  said  what  I  did  only  because  it  seemed 
inevitable,  as  laying  the  basis  for  my  subsequent 
suggestions;  and,  also,  as  illustrating  the  fact 
that  there  was  nothing  whatever  exceptional  in 
my  case ;  that  the  change  in  my  method  was  not 
a  sudden  one  ;  that  whatever  I  ha  ^e  done  in  this 


SPECIFIC    CONDITIONS   OF   SUCCESS.  73 

direction  has  been  only  the  result  of  continuous 
effort,  and  that  anybody  else  who  wishes  to  do  it, 
and  is  willing  to  work  for  it,  can  do  as  much  : 
—  some  of  you,  I  am  sure,  can  do  much  more,  as 
I  sincerely  hope  that  you  will. 

Now  for  what  I  have  principally  to  say  to-day. 

After  the  preliminary  suggestions  which  I 
made  last  week  I  propose  to  present  to  you  cer- 
tain specific  conditions  of  success  —  or  what  I 
esteem  such  —  in  the  work  of  preaching  without 
one's  notes.  First  I  shall  speak  of  those  which 
are  especially  physical  and  mental,  and  after- 
ward of  those  which  are  moral  and  spiritual. 
Those  of  the  latter  class  I  shall  hope  to  present 
next  week.  Of  those  of  the  former  class  I  shall 
speak  to-day.  Some  of  them  are  essential ;  all 
of  them  are  important ;  and  in  the  absence  of 
any  one  of  them,  the  highest  success  can  hardly, 
I  think,  be  ever  realized. 

Before  proceeding  to  consider  them,  however, 
©ne  by  one,  let  me  say  in  general,  as  preliminary 
to  every  thing  which  is  to  follow,  that  I  assume, 


74  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

as  an  essential  pre-requisite  to  all  such  success, 
a  serious,  devout,  intelligent,  inspiring  conviction 
of  the  Divine  origin  and  authority  of  the  Gospel, 
and  of  its  trattscendent  importance  to  men.  — 
This  is  a  fundamental  condition,  indispensable  to 
every  thing  else  ;  and  without  it  no  instruction 
or  rule  that  I  know  of  can  be  of  real  service  to 
any  preacher. 

Of  course,  this  is  not  merely  a  condition  to 
success  in  preaching  without  a  manuscript.  It 
is  a  condition  to  such  success  in  preaching  in 
any  way,  either  with  notes  or  without  them.  No 
man  can  hope  to  accomplish  results,  permanent 
and  fruitful,  in  the  work  of  the  ministry,  unless 
this  conviction  is  in  his  mind,  radicated  there, 
ruling  over  his  thoughts,  inspiring  him  to  con- 
stant endeavors,  and  kindling  in  him  a  constant 
enthusiasm. 

It  is  difficult  to  see,  indeed,  why  a  man  without 
this  should  ever  enter  the  ministry  at  all,  as  long 
as  bread  and  meat  can  be  won  in  other  reputable 
ways.     His  work  must  be   an  immensely  hard 


FAITH   IN    THE   GOSPEL,    NEEDFUL.  75 

one,  and  its  pull  upon  him  must  be  very  exhaust- 
ing. For  a  man  in  preaching  has  not  only  to 
give  sermons,  grammatically  composed,  but  in 
order  to  render  effective  service  he  must  speak, 
or  must  seem  to  speak,  from  the  heart ;  and  if 
one  has  not  the  love  of  the  Gospel  enthroned  in 
his  heart  the  work  must  draw  with  prodigious 
force  on  all  his  nature,  mental  and  moral,  while 
the  reward  for  it  can  never  be  large.  Such  a 
one  will  almost  certainly  be  soon  introducing 
some  novelty  of  doctrine,  to  refresh  his  mind  with 
what  enlists  his  conviction,  or  what  at  least  is 
attractive  to  his  thought.  He  will  tend  more 
and  more  to  become  a  mere  teacher  of  natural 
ethics,  or  of  social  philosophy  ;  and  after  a  while 
will  be  likely  to  leave  the  ministry  altogether. 

A  man  must  have  faith  in  God's  authorship 
of  the  Gospel,  and  in  its  importance  to  man's 
well-being,  in  order  to  impulse  and  success  in 
proclaiming  it.  This  is  necessary,  if  for  no 
other  reason,  that  he  himself  may  understand 
his  proper  function   and   errand  in   the  world; 


']6  PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

that  he  may  recognize  himself  as  essentially  a 
herald — kripv^,  fcripvaam  —  proclaiming  the  glad 
tidings  of  God  to  mankind.  He  is  not  sent  to 
be  an  ingenious  and  eloquent  sophist,  inventing 
theories  of  his  own,  or  accepting  the  theories 
invented  by  others.  He  is  to  bring  to  men  the 
wisdom  which  God  has  first  revealed  to  him  in 
His  word, — accepting,  pondering,  absorbing  that, 
in  his  own  mind,  and  then  declaring  it  vividly 
to  others,  through  character  and  through  speech. 
So  his  office  becomes  a  grand  one :  unique,  in 
fact,  among  the  offices  accomplished  by  man. 
So  he  is  brought  into  intimate  communion  with 
the  mind  of  the  Most  High.  Strength  of  pur- 
pose, expectation  of  success,  and  a  serene  fear- 
lessness, become  the  very  prerogatives  of  his 
office,  when  he  stands  to  represent  the  King  of 
the  world,  in  uttering  His  messages  to  the  men 
of  the  world.* 

The  same  conviction  of  the  Divine  origin  and 
authority  of  the  Gospel,  and    »>f  its  infinite  im* 

»  Note  IX. 


ENTHUSIASM  KINDLED.  'J^ 

portance  to  man,  is  needed  to  help  one  in  medi- 
tating his  subject,  as  well  as  in  presenting  it.  It 
will  quicken  him  in  his  study,  as  well  as  in  the 
pulpit,  if  he  understands  that  his  business  is,  in 
investigating  the  word,  to  ascertain  what  the 
thought  of  God  is,  as  therem  set  forth,  and  then 
to  present  it  —  while  gathering  around  it  all  the 
lights  of  reflection  and  scholarship,  that  he  may 
make  it  most  evident  and  lucent,  and  in  its 
presentation  most  commanding  and  attractive. 
This  will  lift  him  to  higher  levels  of  thought, 
and  lead  him  out  into  widest  ranges  of  inquiry 
and  study.  It  will  draw  forth  and  stimulate 
each  power  within  him,  that  he  may  apprehend 
what  the  Author  of  the  Gospel  would  have  him 
speak,  and  may  speak  it  in  a  manner  most  per- 
tinent and  persuasive. 

It  will  kindle  his  enthusiasm,  and  help  hire 
in  even  the  delivery  of  his  message,  making 
him  courageous,  and  setting  him  free  from  all 
bondage  to  circumstances,  however  embarrassing 
these  may  be.     We  hear   a  great  deal  said,  in 


yS  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 


these  days,  about  awkward  pulpits  ;  how  high 
they  often  are,  how  narrow,  how  restraining. 
There  is  something  in  it.  They  are  often  very 
awkward ;  and  I  criticise  no  one  who  prefers  a 
plain  desk,  on  an  open  stage,  to  one  of  those 
embattled  boxes  into  which  a  minister  some- 
times is  I  ut,  I  would  certainly  rather  myself 
stand  here  and  speak  to  you  from  this  platform, 
than  atten  pt  to  do  it  from  the  pulpit  behind  me : 
thoi^gh  wf  all  have  seen  those  which  were  far 
vfcT-t  tha'   that. 

I  remei  iber,  years  ago,  when  I  was  settled  at 
Brookline.  an  excellent  minister,  now  deceased, 
who  wa3  hen  a  somewhat  distinguished  man, 
came  oof  Sunday  to  preach  for  me.  He  was 
shorter  '...an  I  was,  and  I  therefore  thought 
that  he  might  like  the  desk  lowered,  on  which 
the  sermon  was  to  lie,  and  suggested  this 
to  him.  But  he  said.  No ;  and  it  remained  as 
it  was.  I  found  afterward  that  he  was  short- 
sighted, and  yet  preferred  to  use  no  glasses  :  so 
the  manuscript  must  be  brought  as  closely  as 


A   PULPIT   BARRICADE.  79 


possible  to  his  eye.  Instead  of  lowering  the 
desk,  he  raised  it  still  higher,  as  high  as  it 
would  go.  He  then  closed  the  Bible,  which  had 
lain  open  upon  it.  He  placed  a  hymn-book  on 
that ;  another  hymn-book  on  that ;  a  pile  of  ser- 
mons, a  dozen  I  should  think,  on  the  top  of 
that ;  and  then  the  sermon  which  he  was  to 
read,  surmounting  the  whole.  When  the  whole 
structure  had  been  erected,  he  was  left  standing 
behind  it,  and  just  able  to  look  over  it,  while  the 
congregation  could  see  almost  nothing  of  him 
but  the  top  of  his  head.  Then  he  read  his  text, 
as  his  custom  was,  without  first  naming  its 
place  in  the  Scripture  ;  and  the  text  proved  to 
be :  "  Ye  shall  see  greater  things  than  these  ! " 
It  was  a  serious  service,  and  a  devout  congrega- 
tion ;  but  the  smile  that  rippled  round  the  room, 
if  not  quite  as  loud  as  this  of  yours,  was  quite 
as  instant  and  universal. 

Any  man  may  be  pardoned  for  not  desiring  a 
breast-work  like  that,  between  him  and  the 
people.     But  if  one  is  penetrated,  is  essentially 


80  PREACHING   WITHOUT    NOTES. 

imbued,  with  the  thorough  conviction  that  the 
message  which  he  brings  is  a  message  from  God, 
and  that  it  is  vital  to  man's  well-being,  it  will  not 
make  much  difference  to  him  where  he  preaches. 
Even  such  a  barricade  could  not  hinder  his  ut- 
terance. He  will  preach  on  the  swinging  deck 
of  a  ship,  so  long  as  he  is  not  sea-sick  ;  on  the 
stump,  around  which  the  pioneers  gather ;  on  a 
box,  at  the  street-corner  ;  if  need  be,  from  the 
'Devil's  pulpit,'  on  Monument  Mountain.  He 
will  be  at  home  in  whatever  circumstances,  if 
this  conviction  really  fills  him,  that  the  word 
which  he  preaches  is  God's  word  to  man.* 

Some  one  has  said  that  "  no  faculty  of  the 
mind  is  weak  which  has  heart  in  it."  Certainly 
it  is  true  that  no  faculty  is  strong  which  has  not 
heart  in  it ;  and  whoever  addresses  men  has  to 
learn  the  lesson.  If  one  is  to  speak  on  Sanitary 
Reform,  he  needs  the  underlying  sense  of  the 
greatness  of  the  interest  of  public  health,  and  of 
the  importance  of  the  measures  which  he  advo- 

*  Note  X. 


UNDERTONE   OF    SERMONS.  8 I 


cates  lo  the  maintenance  of  that  health.  If  he 
is  to  speak  for  the  maintenance  and  the  further- 
ance of  International  Peace,  he  needs  to  feel  how 
vast  are  its  blessings,  and  how  tremendous  the 
miseries  and  sins  which  it  displaces,  the  moral 
decadence  which  it  will  arrest. 

So,  and  still  more,  if  he  speaks  of  the  Gospel, 
he  must  feel  how  glorious  that  is  in  itself,  and 
how  adapted  to  man's  vast  need.  This  must  be 
the  undertone  of  every  sermon  ;  like  the 
golden  ground  on  which  the  angels  of  Fra  An- 
gelico  walk  and  worship.  The  conviction  of  it 
must  be  as  a  sun-gleam,  smiting  his  mind,  and 
quickening  to  activity  all  its  beauty  and  all  its 
force.  If  he  has  not  this,  his  thought  will  in- 
evitably be  obscure,  his  feeling  dull,  his  utter- 
ance wanting  in  the  elements  of  power.  A 
deist,  a  fatalist,  a  materialist,  a  sceptic  of  what- 
ever sort,  undertaking  as  a  business  to  preach 
the  Gospel,  will  inevitably  be  like  a  blind  man 
discoursing  on  the  splendors  of  light,  and  the 
charming  and   delicate   interplay  of   colors  ;  or 


82  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

like  a  deaf  man,  describing  oratorios.  Every 
one  who  loves  the  Gospel  will  see  that  he  is 
speaking  theoretically,  in  the  way  of  imitation, 
from  report  of  others,  and  not  from  real  and  rich 
experience.  So  his  words  will  want  fire.  They 
will  stir  no  emotion,  and  touch  no  heart.  They 
will  be  like  a  smile,  in  which  the  lips  laugh, 
while  the  rest  of  the  face  is  harsh  and  sullen. 

In  order  then  that  a  man  may  have  this  con- 
viction, pervading  his  mind  —  that  the  Gospel  is 
God's  word  to  the  world,  and  that  he  is  but  a 
herald  sent  to  proclaim  it  —  that  he  may  enter 
into  this  high  enthusiasm,  and  keep  his  spirit 
glowing  with  it,  he  should  meditate  much  on  the 
facts  which  prove  God's  authorship  of  the  Scrij)- 
ture  :  on  the  amazing  unity  of  the  Bible  ;  on  its 
majesty,  surpassing  all  reach  of  man's  thought ; 
on  the  holiness  of  its  law  —  a  holiness  against 
which  man's  will  rebels,  and  which  could  not 
have  sprung  from  the  nature  that  resists  it ;  on 
its  perfect  adaptation  to  human  wants,  its  power 
to  soothe,  to  inspire,  and  to  purify,  the  peace  it 


PHYSICAL   VIGOR.  83 

gives  to  the  penitent  heart,  the  hope  it  quick- 
ens in  darkest  hours,  the  tranquil  courage  it 
gives  in  death.  Keep  your  minds  under  the 
manifold  proofs  of  God's  authorship  of  the  Gos- 
pel —  proofs  which  in  the  aggregate  amount  to 
demonstration  —  till  the  soul  is  glowing  and  in- 
candescent with  this  conviction  :  that  you  in 
proclaiming  this  to  men  are  speaking  to  them 
the  thoughts  of  the  Almighty.  The  constant 
inspiring  force  of  this  will  exalt  your  whole 
ministry. 

Now  for  the  specific  conditions  of  which  I  am 
to  speak,  which  are  important  to  any  man's  suc- 
cess who  would  preach  this  Gospel  without  aid 
from  notes. 

The  First  which  I  mention  is :  Physical  vigor, 
kept  at  its  highest  attainable  point. 

You  will  think  that  I  begin  a  good  way  back, 
and  so  I  dc  ;  but  this  is  the  under-pinning  of 
every  thing  else,  and  it  must  be  treated  as  first 
in  order. 

Of  course  we  know  that  the  healthiest  men 


84  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

are  by  no  means  always  the  most  intellectual. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  a  man  should  be  trained 
like  a  prize-fighter,  in  active  service,  to  be  a  good 
preacher.  But  the  intellectual  man  is  always 
then  in  the  best  condition  for  effective,  vigorous, 
sustained  mental  effort,  when  his  physical  vigor 
is  most  nearly  at  its  height.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  go  into  any  argument  to  show  this,  or  care- 
fully to  develop  the  subtle  relations  between 
physiology  and  psychology.  Experience  proves 
it 

Every  student  knows,  for  example,  how  easy 
and  swift  mental  processes  are  on  some  days, 
which  on  others  are  tardy  and  difficult ;  because 
in  the  one  case  the  mind  takes  vigor  from  the 
body,  and  the  thoughts  go  forth  refreshed  by  its 
health,  while  in  the  other  case  there  seems  to  be 
a  mist  on  the  brain,  from  some  perturbed  state 
of  the  physical  system,  or  the  invisible  spiritual 
muscle  which  holds  the  mind  to  a  strict  and 
searching  investigation  of  subjects  has  been 
silently  relaxed.     A  clear,   crisp   morning-air: 


HEALTH,   THE    BED-PLATE.  85 

how  it  sets  the  very  soul  in  a  glow,  on  a  day 
like  this  !  After  a  brisk  and  breezy  walk,  after  a 
swim  beyond  the  breakers,  after  a  rapid  horseback 
ride —  it  is  astonishing,  the  swift  change  which  is 
wrought,  of  mental  renewal  ;  how  subjects  clear 
up,  and  faculty  is  freshened,  and  we  are  ready 
for  any  work.  After  sound  and  sufficient  sleep, 
we  wake  in  the  morning  prepared  for  efforts 
which  in  the  weariness  of  the  preceding  evening 
had  been  simply  impossible.  Reading,  conver- 
sation, public  discourse  —  anything  is  then  pos- 
sible, the  refreshed  body  lending  enterprise  to 
the  mind. 

This  emphasizes  the  rule  that  we  must  main- 
tain, as  far  as  we  can,  full  health  of  body,  if  we 
would  discourse  to  men  on  the  themes  of  the 
Gospel,  without  help  from  a  manuscript,  with 
any  success.  Such  health  is  the  bed-plate,  on 
which  the  whole  mental  machinery  must  icst 
and  work.  If  this  be  cracked,  or  displaced,  all 
the  mechanism  that  stands  on  it  will  be  jarred 
and  disturbed,  and  made  ineffective.     You  must 


86  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

work  the  ship  after  that,  if  you  work  it  at  all, 
with  the  donkey-engine. 

Such  health,  indeed,  is  particularly  necessary 
to  the  rapid,  robust,  effective  working  of  those 
special  faculties  which  are  always  most  needed 
in  public  speech.  The  judgment,  the  will,  the 
creative  imagination,  —  the  power  of  rapidly 
originating  thought,  and  as  rapidly  combining 
f.  in  relations  with  others,  —  the  power  of  ex- 
pressing it  freely  and  with  facility,  and  so  of 
setting  forth  the  subjects  which  are  treated 
in  energetic  and  perspicuous  speech :  these 
are  the  powers  which  the  preacher  requires, 
if  he  is  to  speak  without  aid  from  his  notes. 
And  these  are  the  powers  which  depend  most 
eminently  on  fulness  of  health  as  their  condi- 
tion. 

It  may  not  be  so  with  some  other  faculties. 
The  fancy,  for  instance,  may  sometimes  act 
most  rapidly  and  brilliantly,  in  connection  with 
morbid  physical  conditions  ;  as  is  shown  in  not 
a  few  poets  and  artists,  perhaps  in  some  preach* 


GENERAL   MENTAL   VIGOR.  8/ 

ers.  The  memory  will  sometimes  show  abnor- 
mal activity  when  the  brain  is  in  any  thing  but 
a  healthful  condition  ;  and  the  emotional  nature 
is  undoubtedly  more  excitable  —  though  its 
power  of  propagating  emotion  in  others  is  not, 
I  think,  in  like  measure  increased  —  when  the 
body  is  suffering  from  a  diseased  sensibility. 

So  it  may  be  with  still  other  faculties.  But 
the  general  and  harmonious  intellectual  vigor, 
whereby  one  conceives  subjects  clearly  and 
fully,  analyzes  them  rapidly,  sets  them  forth 
with  exactness  in  an  orderly  presentation,  and 
urges  them  powerfully  on  those  who  listen  — 
this  requires  opulence  of  health;  a  sustained 
and  abounding  physical  vigor.  In  the  absence 
of  this,  the  power  will  decline.  If  the  mind 
still  works  energetically  at  all,  it  will  do  so  only 
by  jerks,  and  in  spasms,  not  continuously ;  will 
do  it  with  particular  faculties,  not  with  the  con- 
sentaneous and  cooperating  energy  of  all  its 
powers,  working  together  for  a  noble  result.  It 
may  surprise  men,  still ;  but  it  hardly  by  possi- 
bility will  sway  and  inspire  them. 


88  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

A  conscious  and  abundant  physical  vigor  is 
necessary,  even,  to  a  fit  and  impressive  delivery 
of  one's  thoughts.  The  weak  man  is  apt  to 
screech  in  his  utterance,  and  now  and  then  to 
explode  in  his  tones ;  while  the  strong  man 
speaks  easily,  naturally,  without  any  push  of  his 
voice  by  the  will.  His  is  a  power  which  comes 
from  within,  and  which  manifests  itself  as 
freely  and  steadily  as  the  power  that  moves  the 
levers  of  machinery. 

Indeed,  such  sound  physical  health  is,  directly, 
a  positive  power  to  the  speaker.  It  has  almost 
a  moral  force  in  it.  It  represents  a  complete 
development  of  manhood  in  him ;  and  it  carries 
men  forward,  with  immediate  impulse,  on  the 
efflux  of  its  force.  Webster  is  the  typical  illus- 
tration of  this  among  American  speakers.  The 
vast  mass  of  the  man  made  his  words  impress- 
ive. As  a  farmer  said  of  him,  after  hearing 
one  of  his  brief  addresses :  "  He  didn't  say  very 
much,  but  every  word  that  he  did  say  weighed 
a  pound."     He  carried  men's  minds,  and  over- 


HEALTH,    A    MORAL    FORCE.  89 


whelmingly  pressed  his  thought  upon  them,  with 
the  immense  current  of  his  physical  energy. 
Once  in  a  famous  case  at  Northampton  — 
known  to  the  lawyers  as  the  "  Smith-will  case  " 
—  where  a  large  property  was  involved,  Mr, 
Webster  was  employed  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  will,  and  Mr.  Choate  was  his  antagonist. 
At  one  point  in  the  progress  of  the  trial  Mr. 
Choate  quoted  a  dictum, — from  Lord  Camden,  I 
think  it  was,  —  to  the  effect  that  a  witness  to  the 
execution  of  an  instrument  must  be  competent 
not  only  to  certify  to  the  fact  of  the  manual 
signature  of  the  person  by  whom  the  paper  was 
executed,  but  also  to  judge  of  his  mental  sound- 
ness at  the  time  of  his  signing  it.  Mr.  Choate 
cited  this,  in  impeachment  of  one  of  the  wit- 
nesses to  the  will.  Mr.  Webster  could  not 
avoid  meeting  it.  When  he  came  to  it  he  said, 
in  substance,  as  I  have  been  told :  '  My  learned 
friend  has  quoted  from  Lord  Camden,  to  this 
effect '  —  (repeating  the  dictum).  '  Gentlemen, 
this  means  that  when  you  call  in  ©ne  of  your 


go  PREACHING    WIl  HOUT    NOTES. 

farm-hands  to  witness  your  signature  to  a  con- 
veyance or  a  mortgage,  he  is  not  merely  to  see 
you  write  your  name,  but  he  is  to  be  able  to  look 
into  your  mind,  and  see  if  that  is  sound  and 
discreet!  Lord  Camden  says  that.'  Then  up 
went  his  head,  and  out  went  his  chest :  *  Dan- 
iel Webster  says  that's  nonsense.'  And  so  it 
was,  for  that  jury  at  any  rate. 

We  cannot  certainly  be  Daniel  Websters, 
either  physically  or  mentally.  But  we  may 
attain  our  fair  share  of  physical  vigor,  and 
sain  the  force  which  comes  with  that.  It  is 
especially  needful,  I  think,  to  the  minister.  An 
impression  sometimes  prevails  among  people 
that  religion  is  good  for  dyspeptics  and  invalids, 
for  nervous  people,  and  for  women  ;  but  that  it 
does  not  suit  well  with  a  body  full  of  spirit  and 
health.  They  are  apt  to  expect  to  find  in  the 
minister  a  debilitated  student,  who  does  not 
know  much  of  what  real  and  vigorous  manhood 
means.  His  words  are  for  persons  Uke  himself  ; 
and  not  for  hale  men,  in  an  out-door  life.     A 


THE    MINISTER   NEEDS   IT.  9 1 

full  development  of  vital  force,  a  robust  and 
athletic  habit  of  body,  if  he  can  gain  it,  is  the 
very  best  answer  to  such  an  idea.  Therefore,  if 
for  this  reason  only,  it  is  a  Christian  duty  to  gain 
it,  and  to  keep  our  merely  physical  force  at  the 
highest  point. 

When  I  was  ordained  I  was  in  somewhat 
delicate  health,  not  long  recovered  from  a  seri- 
ous sickness,  thinner  and  paler  than  I  have 
since  been.  The  " Charge"  was  given  to  me  by 
a  most  excellent  man,  a  friend  of  my  father  for 
many  years,  a  friend  of  my  own  from  my  boy- 
hood up,  to  whom  I  was  attached  by  many 
tender  and  grateful  ties,  and  whom  I  had  every 
reason  to  revere.  He  was  a  man  of  very  full 
and  florid  habit,  who  had  not  seen  his  knees,  as 
they  say,  for  twenty  years ;  and  as  he  stood 
speaking  on  the  platform,  while  I  stood  listening 
beneath,  the  contrast  between  us  was  undoubt- 
edly striking.  It  was  emphasized,  perhaps,  to 
some  of  the  congregation,  when  looking  at  mc 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  he  said  very  earnestly : 


92  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES 


"  My  young  brother,  I  charge  you,  Keep  under 
the  body  !  " 

It  did  seem  rather  absurd  at  the  time,  as  an 
address  from  him  to  me ;  but  it  was  neverthe- 
less a  sound,  wholesome,  apostolic  charge.  He 
meant  what  he  said ;  and  I  should  repeat  it  on 
every  occasion  when  such  a  service  was  com- 
mitted to  me.  I  repeat  it  to  myself  to-day,  and 
repeat  it  to  you  :  "  Keep  under  the  body."  Only 
be  careful  to  give  the  precept  its  proper  meaning, 
and  to  obey  it  in  the  right  sense.  Keep  under 
the  body,  as  the  rider  keeps  his  horse  beneath 
him ;  as  the  sailor  keeps  the  deck ;  as  the 
builder  keeps  ladder  and  scaffolding  beneath 
him.  Keep  it  in  constant  subjection  to  the 
mind.  Keep  it  under,  that  the  whole  intellectual 
force  may  securely  rest  and  rise  upon  it ;  that  it 
may  be  not  an  opponent  of  the  spirit,  but  its 
continual  supporter  and  minister. 

In  order  to  this,  avail  yourselves  of  all  the 
means  which  experience  suggests,  your  own  or 
others'.     Leave  no  means  untried,  that  are  apt 


MEANS   OF    HEALTH.  93 

to  the  end.  Use  good,  simple,  wholesome  food, 
and  plenty  of  it.  Find  out  for  yourselves  what 
food  suits  you  best,  and  govern  yourselves 
accordingly,  without  reference  to  the  theories  of 
other  people  aL»out  it.  Take  exercise  as  you 
need  it,  and  physical  recreation.  Get  plenty  of 
sleep,  and  as  early  as  you  can.  The  '  beauty- 
sleep  '  of  the  mind  comes  generally  before  mid- 
night. Do  your  work  in  the  day-time,  in  the 
sunshine,  if  possible  ;  under  the  light  which  God 
has  given,  and  not  in  an  artificial  blaze.  Enjoy 
the  intervals  of  rest  and  relaxation,  as  you  have 
opportunity,  and  as  you  find  need.* 

Use  every  help,  which  experience  indicates 
as  reasonable  and  right,  to  secure  the  condi- 
tion, and  maintain  the  condition,  of  full  normal 
physical  vigor ;  and  remember  that  you  are 
responsible  to  no  man  for  that  which  you  do  in 
order  to  this  supreme  result.  You  are  respon- 
sible to  the  Son  of  God,  and  to  God  Himself  — 
who  has  given  you  the  body  as  the  instrument 
•  Note  XI. 


94  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

through  which  the  mind  is  to  work ;  who  requires 
you  to  keep  it  continually  attuned  for  effective 
continuous  service.  So  nourish  and  train  it,  to 
the  highest  point  of  strength  and  vigor  attain- 
able by  you  ;  and  whenever  you  speak  without  a 
manuscript  you  will  feel  the  effect.  Force,  buoy- 
ancy, elasticity,  vigor,  will  come  to  the  mind 
from  the  sound  and  energetic  physical  force 
which  underlies  and  sustains  it. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say.  Secondly  :  Be  very 
sure  to  keep  your  mind  in  a  state  of  habitual 
activity y  alertness,  energy  ;  —  so  that  it  will  be 
ready  to  grasp  subjects  strongly,  and  to  handle 
them  with  easy  and  effectual  force ;  so  that 
thoughts  shall  come  to  you  rapidly  when  you 
speak,  and  your  freedom  in  uttering  them  be 
proportioned  to  the  rapidity  with  which  they 
are  suggested. 

Keep  the  mind  up  to  its  highest  point.  Of 
course  we  all  know  the  immense  differences  that 
appear  in  it,  at  different  times,  in  regard  to  that 
dynamic  force  by  which  it  seizes  a  subject  pre- 


DIFFERENT  MENTAL  STATES.       95 

sented,  opens  it  rapidly  in  its  parts  and  relations, 
and  sets  it  forth  clearly  for  others  to  consider. 
Sometimes  it  seems  impossible  to  accomplish 
what  at  other  times  is  easy.  Things  are  din; 
and  obscure  to  us  on  one  day,  which  on  another 
are  manifest,  vivid.  The  whole  atmosphere 
seems  changed. 

A  man  going  up  Mount  Washington  some- 
times finds  at  the  top  only  a  cloudy  or  stormy 
darkness,  through  which  the  sight  does  not  pass 
at  all.  The  whole  peak  welters  in  waves  of  fog. 
On  another  day  —  called  by  those  who  live  there 
'  bright '  —  the  air  is  full  of  a  shimmering  haze, 
in  which  the  light-rays  seem  inter-twisted  and 
tangled  together,  so  that  no  eye  can  fairly  pierce 
the  glittering  mist.  It  sees  only  summits  of  the 
neighboring  mountains,  surging  around  the  cen- 
tral crest.  But  at  last  there  comes  a  resplendent 
day,  when  through  the  clear  transpicuous  air  you 
look  afar.  Your  vision  has  found  its  perfect 
medium.  You  see  the  green  meadows  of  Con- 
way lying  almost  at  your  feet,  with   the  Saco 


96  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

winding  through  ;  and  sixty  miles  away,  as  the 
bird  flies,  you  look  into  the  harbor  of  Portland, 
and  perhaps  see  beyond  it  the  flash  of  sails  out 
on  the  sea. 

There  are  states  of  the  mind  which  corre- 
spond with  these  changes,  and  of  which  they  are 
the  physical  parallel.  There  come  to  us  some- 
times high,  luminous  moments,  of  vision  and 
intuition,  when  we  see  at  a  glance  what  before 
had  been  hidden,  and  realms  of  thought  are  in- 
stantly opened ;  when  a  moment  will  do  for  us, 
what  previous  hours  had  failed  to  accomplish. 
Then  subjects  instantaneously  take  form,  dis- 
courses shape  themselves  in  our  thoughts,  and 
both  outline  and  detail  are  conceived  at  once 
with  perfect  vividness.* 

This  story  is  told  of  an  eminent  living  clergy- 
man :  I  will  not  vouch  for  it,  in  all  its  partic- 
ulars, but  in  its  main  features  I  have  the 
assurance  that  it  is  authentic.  He  was  walk- 
ing one  evening  to  a  church  at  New  Haven,  at 

*  Note  XII. 


SERMON  SUDDENLY  SUGGESTED,  97 

which  he  was  to  preach,  with  a  young  lady,  at 
whose  home  perhaps  he  had  been  entertained. 
She  said  to  him  on  the  way  :  "  Dr.  C — ,  is  it  true, 
as  I  have  heard,  that  you  sometimes  do  not 
select  your  text  till  you  have  gone  into  the  pul- 
pit ?  "  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  it  is  sometimes  true  ; 
and  I  wish  you  would  give  me  a  text  for  this 
evening,  for  really  I  have  not  yet  decided  on 
what  to  preach."  "  I  would  if  I  could,"  she 
said ;  "  but  I  can't  think  of  any  text  at  this 
moment,  unless  it  be :  '  The  Lord  spake  unto 
Moses  and  unto  Aaron,  saying.'"  "  Excellent!" 
said  he.  "  It  is  precisely  what  I  want :  I  shall 
preach  upon  that."  And  he  did.  It  would  puz- 
zle us,  perhaps,  to  discern  at  a  glance  what  he 
saw  in  it.  But  it  was  one  of  the  grandest  sub- 
jects that  can  be  given  to  any  preacher,  that 
can  be  considered  by  any  man.  It  was  the  vast 
subject  of  the  Divine  Revelation.  It  opened  to 
him,  all  at  a  flash,  like  a  bright  broad  landscape 
seen  through  a  crevice. 

Man's  need  of  such  a  Revelation  from  above, 


98  PRSACHING   WITHOUT    NOTES. 

and  his  constant  tendency  to  sink  into  deeper 
darkness  without  it ;  the  fair  expectation,  from 
God's  wisdom  and  goodness,  that  He  will 
give  it ;  the  different  modes  in  which  it  is 
shown  by  Scripture  to  have  been  given  —  by 
oral  utterance,  by  written  words,  by  ecstatic 
visions  and  dreams,  by  prophetic  inspiration,  by 
the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God  Himself,  who 
shows  to  the  world  the  very  mind  of  God,  as 
well  as  utters  His  separate  thoughts,  at  last  by 
the  advent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  teaching  the 
evangelists  and  the  apostles  ;  then  by  all  these, 
combined  in  one  Bible,  a  book  for  all  ages,  a 
book  for  the  world,  a  book  to  be  interpreted  to 
the  studious  reader  by  the  same  Divine  Spirit 
from  which  its  inspiration  came :  —  this  was  the 
substance  of  the  sermon.  Then  followed  the 
lessons :  of  the  grace  of  God,  in  giving  this  to 
man,  and  preserving  it  in  the  world  ;  of  the  duty 
and  privilege  of  attending  to  it ;  of  the  wicked- 
ness of  substituting  anything  for  it  —  either 
Reason,  or  the  Church  ;  of  the  glory  of  the  state 


THE    MIND   A   BATTERY.  99 

in  which  even  this  Revelation  will  be  needed  no 
more,  since  we  shall  see  God  face  to  face. 

The  whole  discourse  —  as  represented  to  me — 
was  compact,  complete,  powerful,  from  the  out- 
set on  ;  because  it  was  fashioned  by  a  mind  in 
this  high,  fervid,  luminous  state  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  It  was  precisely  adapted,  also,  to  a 
semi-sceptical  state  of  mind  at  that  time  pre- 
vailing in  the  college,  of  which  he  was  aware ; 
and  so  it  was  every  way  timely  and  effective. 

Well,  of  course,  this  is  an  extraordinary  in- 
stance ;  as  the  mental  state  expressed  in  it  was 
extraordinary.  But  I  suspect  that  every  man  who 
is  much  accustomed  to  speaking  without  manu- 
script has  met  something  like  it  in  his  experi- 
ence. The  mind  now  and  then  comes  into  a 
state  in  which  any  suggestion,  any  occurrence, 
will  evoke  great  fulness  and  force  of  thought. 
It  is  then  like  a  battery  fully  charged.  It  does 
not  take  a  64  pounder  to  draw  out  the  flash 
from  such  a  battery.  A  knitting-needle  will  do 
it ;  the  smallest  bit  of  broken  wire.     And  nothing 


lOO  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

is  easier  than  to  preach  in  that  mood.  Any  text 
tliat  is  touched  will  set  in  motion  trains  of 
thought,  to  be  instantly  elaborated,  and  ready 
for  instant  presentation. 

But  this  state  of  mind  cannot  be  extempo- 
rized. The  will  can  no  more  create  it  at  pleas- 
ure than  it  can  make  us  three  inches  taller.  It 
will  always  be  found,  when  it  has  come,  to  have 
had  deep  vital  roots  beneath  it.  How  then  can 
we  gain  it  ?  and  keep  the  mind  in  this  best  con- 
dition for  grandest  service  ?  The  means  are 
many.     I  can  mention  only  one  or  two. 

Reading,  intently,  and  rapidly,  is  one  of  them 
There  is  great  virtue  in  rapid  reading,  when  it 
is  also  attentive  and  studious.  Ours  is  apt,  I 
think,  to  be  too  lazy,  indolent,  self-indulgent. 
We  read,  and  hardly  know  sometimes  whether 
we  are  reading  or  dozing.*  Reading  rapidly,  as 
well  as  attentively,  gives  pace  to  the  mind,  a 
general  celerity  to  the  whole  mental  movement. 
It  trains  the  intellectual  force  to  just  that  sure 
*  Note  XIII. 


READING   WIDELY.  lOI 

and  vigorous  quick-step  which  one  always  wants 
in  speaking  to  men,  with  an  earnest  conviction, 
but  without  any  notes.  There  is  great  benefit, 
therefore,  in  such  reading ;  and  the  impulse  and 
stimulus  which  one  carries  away  from  it  are  of 
more  importance  than  many  minor  particulars 
of  knowledge. 

Read  widely,  too ;  history,  science,  philosophy, 
poetry,  works  on  law,  works  on  art,  as  well  as 
discussions  in  metaphysics.  Do  not  read  too 
exclusively  in  theology.  The  man  who  confines 
himself  wholly  to  that  develops  only  a  part  of 
his  mind ;  keeps  only  a  certain  set  of  faculties 
in  exercise  and  training.  He  is  apt  to  get  an 
eye  like  a  microscopic  lens,  fine  in  its  distinc- 
tions, not  wide  in  its  range.  What  the  minister 
needs,  who  would  speak  to  men  effectively,  is  the 
widest  development.  He  should  keep  his  mind, 
therefore,  in  quickening  contact  with  other 
minds,  in  many  and  various  departments  of 
thought.  Only  eschew  fiction  ;  or  use  it,  if  at  all, 
in   great   moderation.     As   a   general   thing,  it 


102  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

doesn't  help.  It  rather  relaxes  and  ungirds  the 
mind  ;  acts  as  a  laxative,  or  an  anaesthetic,  rather 
than  as  a  real  invigorant. 

I  do  not  know  that  I  should  go  so  far  as  to 
insist  on  your  following  precisely  the  example 
of  an  excellent  friend  of  mine,  who  once 
read  David  Copperfield,  when  he  had  a  tough 
toothache,  and  who  afterward  said  to  the  gen- 
tleman who  had  furnished  it  that  he  did  not 
know  whether  he  had  done  right  or  not,  but  cer- 
tainly he  had  not  read  any  other  work  of  fiction 
for  twenty  years ;  not  since  he  read  Bunyan's 
Holy  War !  But  I  should  say,  read  it  very 
little  ;  in  vacation,  if  at  all,  or  in  time  of  recrea- 
tion, and  not  when  you  are  actively  at  work. 
And  when  you  read,  read  only  the  masters,  — 
Thackeray,  Dickens,  Bulwer,  Scott,  and  the  like ; 
and  let  the  great  herd  of  writers  of  stories  go 
thei'  way.  They  bring  no  profit.  Keep  the 
mind  braced  —  that  is  the  rule  —  by  contact 
with  large  and  disciplinary  subjects,  as  treated  by 
vigorous  and  liberal  minds ;  and  accustom  your- 


STIMULUS   OF    CONVERSATION.  IO3 

selves  to  a  swift  and  thorough  redaction  of  sub- 
jects as  you  read.  But  do  not  read  to  the  point 
of  weariness.  Absorb  and  assimilate  as  much 
as  you  can,  but  never  undertake  to  carry  the 
burden  of  multitudes  of  things  to  be  afterward 
remembered.  The  force  is  what  you  want, 
rather  than  the  load.* 

Conversation,  too,  with  equal  minds,  is  of  im- 
mense and  constant  service  in  refreshing  the 
mind,  and  replenishing  it  with  active  force. 
Indeed,  conversation,  if  practised  as  it  ought  to 
be,  as  a  commerce  of  thought  between  respon- 
sive and  interchanging  minds,  is  an  invaluable 
aid  toward  gaining  the  art  of  easy  and  self-pos- 
sessed public  speech.  I  do  not  think  we  have 
as  much  of  it  as  we  ought ;  or  that  it  holds  the 
place  which  it  should  in  our  plans  of  life,  as  a  real 
educational  force.  It  is  much  the  same  exercise, 
if  you  analyze  it,  with  public  speaking.  Of  course 
it  is  not  the  same  altogether.  In  public  speech 
your  utterance  of  thought  is  more  prolonged  :  it 
•  Note  XIV. 


I04  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES, 

is  monologue,  not  dialogue.  You  miss  the  help 
which  comes  from  interjected  remarks  or  re- 
plies ;  and  you  are  not  so  immediately  conscious 
of  the  sympathy  or  the  collision  of  the  adjacent 
minds.  Still,  conversation  is  much  the  same 
form  of  mental  activity ;  and  it  always  helps  the 
public  speaker.  It  trains  the  mind  to  think  rap- 
idly, and  to  formulate  thought  with  facility  and 
success ;  and  each  sense  of  such  success,  which 
is  gained  in  conversation,  will  give  one  more 
confidence  when  he  stands  before  an  audience. 

Instead  of  talking  to  ten  persons,  you  are  there 
to  talk  to  five  hundred ;  but  the  one  exercise  has 
helped  for  the  other,  as  singing  in  a  parlor  helps 
to  sing  in  a  choir,  or  as  shooting  with  an  air-gun, 
at  ten  paces,  helps  one  to  shoot  straight  with  a 
rifle,  at  a  hundred.  One  who  is  silent,  secluded, 
all  the  week,  without  contact  with  men,  had 
better  always  read  his  sermons.  He  will  be  cer- 
tainly timorous,  and  self-conscious,  when  Sunday 
comes  ;  afraid  of  other  minds,  except  as  they 
speak  to  him  through  books.     But  one  who  has 


VARIETY    OF    WORK.  IO5 

the  opportunity,  and  uses  it,  of  energetic  and 
frank  conversation,  on  important  subjects,  with 
equal  minds,  will  be  remforced  by  it,  and  will  be 
sure  to  come  to  his  pulpit  more  ripe  and  ready 
for  his  work,  more  confident  of  his  power  to 
atter  thought  without  having  written  it. 

Variety  of  work,  too,  assists  this  result.  I 
mean,  of  course,  variety  of  work  within  reason- 
able limits.  I  shouldn't  advise  you,  when  you 
come  to  be  ministers,  to  undertake  any  wholly 
superfluous  work  like  this  of  mine — giving  lec- 
tures to  young  gentlemen  who  already  have  pro- 
fessors to  tell  them  more  than  their  heads  can 
hold !  But  aside  from  such  absurd  excess, 
within  reasonable  limits,  the  more  various  a 
man's  work  is,  the  more  likely  he  is  to  keep  his 
mind  in  an  animated,  active,  and  forceful  state. 
When  some  one  spoke,  you  know,  to  Dr.  Lyman 
Beecher  of  a  man  who  '  had  too  many  irons  in 
the  fire,'  his  reply  was,  '  Nonsense  !  let  him  put 
them  all  in  :  poker,  tongs,  shovel,  and  all.  It 
never  will  hurt  him.'     The  fact  that  he  himself 


I06  PREACHING    WITHOUT   NOTES. 

was  always  so  ready  for  any  work,  which  prom- 
ised important  Christian  success,  was  in  part  the 
secret  of  that  commanding  and  quickening 
power  which  he  possessed  so  largely  and  so 
long.  Variety  of  occupation  sets  the  spirit  in  a 
glow.  It  relieves  one  faculty  by  exercising  an- 
other. It  keeps  all  forces  alert  and  ready,  and 
tends  to  make  one  ambi-dextrous.* 

With  this  variety  of  work,  this  habit  of  con- 
versation, this  rapid  and  wide  reading,  one  may 
at  any  rate  keep  his  mind  at  as  high  a  state  of 
freshness  and  energy  as  is  to  him  possible. 
And  in  that  state  it  is  easy  to  speak  one's 
thought  to  others.  Then  the  stimulus  of  the 
audience  only  further  assists  him.  When  he 
comes  to  his  congregation,  and  sees  the  eager 
listening  faces  upturned  toward  his,  perhaps  sees 
the  flush  or  the  tear  as  he  speaks,  there  is  im- 
mense incentive  in  it.  He  may  then  reach 
points  of  vision  and  power  impossible  to  be 
attained  in  the  study.  He  may  even  reproduce, 
•  Note  XV. 


RESULT  OF  SUCH  TRAINING.       IO7 

in  a  measure,  the  experience  of  the  eloquent 
preacher  in  this  city,  not  of  our  faith,  who  is 
said  to  have  said  that  when  he  had  reached  a  cer- 
tain occasional  pitch  of  intensity,  in  conviction 
and  feeling,  he  had  nothing  more  to  do  with  the 
sermon  than  just  to  open  and  shut  his  jaws. 
'  There  is  a  little  fellow  up  there  in  the  brain 
who  does  the  rest ;  and  where  it  all  comes  fror* 
I  hardly  know,' 

Then  the  mind  walks  on  its  high  places.  It 
works  automatically,  and  with  sovereign  force, 
without  constraint  or  urgency  of  volition.  The 
man  himself  is  amazed  at  the  rush  with  which 
both  thought  and  utterance  come.  The  reserved 
forces  all  break  into  play.  Things  are  at  hand, 
which  had  seemed  inaccessible.  Previous  knowl- 
edge is  as  if  transfigured.  The  whole  spirit  is 
full  of  energy,  full  of  light.  It  rejoices  to  re- 
veal itself,  in  action  and  in  speech ;  and  its 
words  are  instinct  with  brightness  and  power. 

Such  moods  will  only  come  of  themselves. 
They  cannot  be  summoned  by  an  effort  of  will, 


I08  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

any  more  than  you  can  make  a  cold  day  warmer 
by  heating  the  thermometer.  But  th()y  come 
only  to  minds  prepared  for  them,  by  such  a  dis- 
cipline as  I  have  suggested.  And  when  they 
come,  you  have  the  sense,  as  at  no  other  time,  of 
doing  your  kingly  errand  in  the  world  for  One 
who  is  Himself  speaking  through  you  —  through 
the  mind  which,  in  all  its  intensified  powers,  is 
subordinate  to  His  !  When  a  congregation  has 
once  felt  the  luxury  and  the  exhilaration  of  such 
an  experience  they  will  never  be  content  until 
it  has  been  repeated.* 

Then,  Thirdly  :  Be  careful  that  the  plan  of 
your  sermon  is  simple,  natural,  progressive,  easily 
mastered,  and  is  thoroughly  imbedded  in  your 
mind.  —  This  seems  to  me  indispensable. 

If  there  is  any  secret  in  regard  to  speaking 
Ireely  without  notes,  which  I  have  learned,  it  is 
simply  this :  that  the  recollective  forces  of  the 
mind,  which  are  in  their  nature  subordinate  and 
auxiliary,  are  to  be  kept  strictly  in  abeyance  — 
*  Note  XVI. 


PLAN    OF    THE    SERMON.  ICQ 

not  to  be  called  on  for  any  service  —  so  that  the 
spontaneous,  suggestive,  creative  powers  may 
have  continual  and  unhindered  play.  Nothing, 
if  possible,  should  be  left  to  be  recalled  at  the 
time  of  speaking,  by  a  distinct  act  of  memory. 
The  more  you  try  to  recollect,  the  less  effective 
your  sermon  will  be.  The  more  frequently  you 
have  to  look  backward,  in  the  course  of  it,  the 
less  aggressive  productive  energy  will  remain  in 
your  mind  ;  and  it  is  this,  if  any  thing,  which  is 
to  win  and  to  move  the  assembly. 

It  is  indispensable,  therefore,  that  the  main 
plan  of  the  sermon  be  from  the  start  so  plainly 
in  view  that  it  comes  up  of  itself,  as  it  is  needed, 
and  does  not  require  to  be  pulled  into  sight  with 
any  effort.  To  this  end,  it  must  be  simple, 
cbvious,  natural,  so  that  it  fixes  itself  in  the 
mind ;  and  must  be  clearly  articulated  in  its 
parts.  If  possible,  let  it  be  so  arranged  that  one 
point  naturally  leads  to  another,  and,  when  the 
treatment  of  it  is  finished,  leaves  you  in  front  of 
that  which  comes  next.     Then  take  up  that,  and 


no  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

treat  it  in  its  order,  until,  through  that  treatment, 
you  reach  the  third,  and  find  it  inevitable  to 
proceed  to  consider  that.  By  such  a  progressive 
arrangement  of  thought  you  are  yourself  carried 
forward  ;  your  faculties  have  continual  liberty  ; 
you  are  not  forced  to  pause  in  the  work  of 
addressing  yourself  directly  to  the  people. 

Of  course  you  may  secure  this  in  either  one 
of  a  variety  of  ways. 

You  may  get  it,  for  example,  by  a  strictly 
textual  division  of  the  subject,  when  the  structure 
of  your  text  admits  of  that.  Take  Paul's  decla- 
ration, for  example,  in  his  epistle  to  the  Romans : 
[viii.  28.]  "  And  we  know  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them 
who  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose." 
"  We  know : "  what  right  had  Paul  to  speak 
thus,  with  such  supreme  certainty  ?  Because 
he  had  been  assured  of  it  by  God,  and  had  found 
it  verified  in  his  experience.  We  may  rest  on  his 
knowledge,  and  make  it  ours.  "  All  things : " 
all  facts,  and  forces,  and  laws  of  the  universe, 


TEXTUAL    DIVISION.  Ill 

from  the  smallest  animalcule  to  the  star  Alcy- 
Dne :  what  a  measureless  compass  in  this  declara- 
tion !  "  Work : "  nothing  is  inactive,  all  things, 
and  all  beings,  under  God's  ordination,  are  in 
motion  for  effects.  "  Work  together  :  "  in  har- 
mony with  each  other,  as  all  proceeding  from 
one  Divine  mind,  and  moving  in  the  develop- 
ment of  one  supreme  plan.  "  Work  together  for 
good : "  the  beneficence  of  all  in  the  final  result ; 
such  as  must  be  anticipated,  since  He  from 
whom  they  start  is  good,  and  He  cannot  do 
otherwise  than  manifest  His  character  in  the 
ends  toward  which  the  universe  tends.  But  it 
is  for  good  "  to  them  that  love  Him  :  "  to  those 
who  are  in  union,  by  moral  sympathy,  with  the 
Head  of  the  creation,  having  been  lifted  and 
inspired  to  that  sympathy  by  His  inviting  and 
quickening  grace.  ' 

The  text  itself  suggests  the  succession  of  the 
divisions,  if  you  choose  so  to  treat  it ;  and  each 
following  word  is  the  fulcrum  of  an  argument. 

And  then  the  practical  lessons  come,  just  as 


112  PREACHIN3    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

naturally :  of  comfort  to  those  who  are  in  trouble ; 
of  courage  and  enterprise  to  those  who  are  trying 
to  work  for  God  ;  of  assurance  of  hope,  to  those 
who  are  consciously  allied  to  Him,  through 
joyful  and  affectionate  faith  in  His  Son.  —  There 
is  nothing  here  to  be  laboriously  recalled.  It 
presents  itself,  as  fast  as  you  want  it  ;  and  you 
could  not  forget  it,  if  you  tried. 

Or,  you  may  reach  the  same  result  by  a  topical 
division  of  the  subject,  if  you  prefer  that.  Take, 
for  example,  another  declaration  of  the  same 
great  Apostle,  in  his  letter  to  the  Colossians : 
[i.  14.]  "  In  whom  we  have  redemption  through 
his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins."  —  There 
is  a  consciousness  of  sin  in  every  man;  of 
omission,  at  least,  if  not  of  wrong-doing;  of 
defect  in  virtue,  if  not  of  a  fierce  and  virulent 
depravity.  With  this  comes  the  conscious  need 
of  forgiveness,  which  is  the  inevitable  correlative 
of  the  other,  and  will  be  apparent  to  all  who  are 
thoughtful.  Is  there  any  answer  then,  on  the 
part  of   God  to  this   need   of  ours  ?     Several 


TOPICAL    DIVISION.  II3 

answers  are  current  in  the  world,  and  challenge 
attention. 

It  is  said,  for  example,  that  He  never  forgives ; 
He  cannot,  in  the  nature  of  the  case.  Moral 
forces  work  as  irresistibly,  moral  laws  are  as 
inexorable,  as  those  which  rule  in  the  physical 
world.  The  man  who  breaks  law  must  take  the 
consequences.  The  morally  poisoned  cannot  be 
helped. — This  is  the  positivist,  the  deistical 
idea.  It  is  a  terrible  response  to  our  keen  and 
tremulous  sense  of  need. 

Another  is,  that  He  forgives  capriciously: 
those  who  have  been  born  of  good  parents  ;  those 
who  have  lived  in  Christian  society ;  who  have 
had  a  fortunate  mental  constitution ;  who  have 
been  influential ;  who  have  not  done  any  thing 
flagrantly  bad  ;  —  such  are  forgiven,  though  no 
change  of  character  is  manifest  in  them.  This 
is  an  answer,  if  possible,  still  more  terrible  than 
the  other  ;  since  the  man  unforgiven  is  discrimi- 
nated against,  in  favor  of  one  who  had  a  better 
opportunity.     That  cannot  be  admitted. 


114  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

A  third  answer  is,  that  He  forgives  univer- 
sally, without  reference  to  circumstances,  with- 
out distinction  of  character,  because  He  is 
kind  :  and  this  is  the  worst  conception  of  all.  — 
For  by  it  all  moral  law  is  annulled,  and  chaos 
comes  in  the  spiritual  universe ;  God  himself 
losing  the  bright  attestation  of  His  holiness ; 
Mary  Magdalen  sitting  in  heaven  beside  Hero- 
dias  ;  the  two  thieves  entering  its  gates  together, 
and  Judas  appearing  there  long  before  John.  It 
is  incredible  that  this  should  be  the  answer. 

The  remaining  one  is  the  answer  of  the  Gos- 
pel, summed  up  in  the  text :  that  God  forgives  ; 
forgives  not  capriciously,  but  with  wise,  definite, 
and  Divine  pre-arrangement ;  forgives  univer- 
sally, on  the  ground  of  an  atonement,  and  on 
the  condition  of  repentance  and  faith.  — This 
answer  shows  God's  kindness,  holiness,  wisdom, 
together,  and  fully  illustrates  what  is  glorious  in 
Him.  It  fits  precisely  to  man's  sense  of  need. 
It  makes  forgiveness  attainable  to  each,  while 
upholding  perfectly  the  supreme  moral  order. 


PROGRESSIVE  ARRANGEMENT.       II5 

And  from  it  we  learn  the  preciousness  of  the 
Bible,  and  gain  an  argument  for  its  Divine 
origin  ;  the  privilege  of  accepting  God's  offer 
of  forgiveness ;  the  infinite  hazard,  the  self- 
inflicted  damage,  of  neglecting  or  refusing  it. 

You  will  observe,  Gentlemen,  that  I  am  not 
proposing  this,  or  either  of  these,  as  in  any 
sense  a  model-plan  for  one  of  your  sermons. 
You  have  an  eminent  professor  to  do  that,  and 
I  could  not  attempt  the  office,  if  I  were  asked. 
I  only  sketch  rapidly  these  possible  plans  to 
illustrate,  by  examples,  what  I  have  said :  that  it 
is  perfectly  possible,  and  very  desirable,  so  to 
arrange  the  subject  before  you  that  each  point 
when  treated  shall  lead  you  to  the  next,  and  land 
you  in  front  of  it;  so  that  the  forward  move- 
ment of  the  mind,  from  first  to  last,  may  be 
wholly  unhindered.  You  require  a  thorough 
organization  of  the  subject  in  your  own  mind, 
if  you  are  to  present  it  without  a  manuscript, 
with  any  degree  of  fieedom  and  vigor.  There 
must  be  method  and  progress  in  your  arrange- 


Il6      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

merit,  or  the  mind  will  infallibly  be  all  the  while 
occupied  in  getting  hold  of  its  instruments,  not 
in  using  them  on  the  people. 

It  has  been  said,  very  admirably,  of  one 
brilliant  and  epigrammatic  writer  of  our  day, 
that  "  his  sentences  are  like  sabre-cuts  :  they 
have  succession,  but  not  connection."  Such  a 
writer,  I  should  think,  must  read  what  he  writes, 
or  repeat  it  from  memory.  There  must  be  con- 
nection, as  well  as  succession,  in  the  thoughts 
which  one  would  express  without  notes  ;  and 
the  more  fully  and  deeply  the  plan  of  the  dis- 
course is  imbedded  in  the  mind,  and  made  seLf- 
suggestive,  the  more  elastic  and  buoyant  is  the 
tread  of  the  mind  in  all  the  discussion. 

If  needful  to  this  result,  I  would  write  the  plan 
of  the  sermon  over  twenty  times,  before  preach^ 
ing  it ;  not  copying,  merely,  from  one  piece  of 
p?per  upon  another,  but  writing  it  out,  carefully 
and  fully,  each  time  independently,  till  I  per- 
fectly knew  it ;  till  it  was  fixed,  absolutely,  in 
the  mind.     A  German,  called  as  a  candidate  iot 


THE  PLAN  FULLY  IN  MIND.       II 7 

the  jury-box  in  one  of  the  courts  the  other  day, 
was  asked  if  he  could  change,  on  further  evi- 
dence, an  opinion  which  he  affirmed  that  he  had 
formed.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  I  cannot  change  it,  for 
it  is  all  mixed  up  mit  my  mind  T^  The  plan  of 
a  discourse,  if  one  is  to  present  it  without  help 
from  a  manuscript,  should  be  so  absolutely 
mixed  up  with  his  mind  that  he  cannot  forget 
It ;  that  it  stays  there  of  itself,  and  comes  up 
without  effort  as  it  is  wanted.  One  may  often 
profitably  spend  more  time,  therefore,  on  the 
principal  arrangement  of  the  subject,  and  its 
proper  distribution,  than  on  all  the  collateral 
and  auxiliary  details  ;  as  they  say  that  more  life, 
if  not  more  labor,  was  spent  on  the  piles  beneatl" 
the  St  Petersburg  church  of  St.  Isaac's,  tc 
get  a  foundation,  than  on  all  the  magnificent 
marbles  and  malachite  which  have  since  been 
lodged  m  it.  It  must  be  a  primary,  principal 
aim,  in  preparing  each  disc  ourse,  to  have  the 
ground-work  sound  and  sure,  and  absolutely 
establi^ihed  in  your  mind 


Il8  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

It  need  not  be  made  apparent,  perhaps,  to  the 
congregation.  It  is  not  always  best,  I  think,  to 
have  the  frame  of  a  sermon  Uke  the  frame  of  a 
Swiss  cottage,  all  shown  on  the  outside.  It  may 
be  better  to  keep  it  within,  and  to  have  the 
presence  and  the  strength  of  it  manifested  only 
in  the  dignity  and  stability  of  the  structure 
which  it  braces  and  governs.  But  it  must  be 
there,  and  give  symmetry  and  security  to  all  the 
details  which  grow  up  upon  it.*  Saadi,  the  Per- 
sian poet,  is  quoted  by  some  writer  whom  I  have 
forgotten,  as  comparing  Fortune  to  a  peacock, 
"  with  a  showy  tail,  but  a  frightful  pair  of  legs." 
I  have  sometimes  heard  sermons  which  recalled 
the  description.  The  general  arrangement  of 
thoughts  in  your  sermon  will  constitute  the 
legs,  on  which  it  is  to  move.  Be  very  sure  that 
they  are  strong,  sustaining,  progressive;  and 
then  let  the  tail  be  as  God  pleases. 

When  once  you  have  the  main  plan  of  the 
sermon  fully  in  mind,  be  not  too  solicitous  about 

•  Note  XVIL 


SERMON   ALWAYS   FRESH.  1 19 

minor  things,  and  especially  be  careful  not  to 
let  the  thoughts  become  engaged  to  too  many 
details,  which  you  wish  to  recall.  If  you  do,  you 
will  be  as  one  walking  with  a  thousand  minute 
weights  attached  to  him,  each  one  of  them  small, 
but  their  aggregate  amount  an  overpowering 
hinderance.  It  is  as  good  a  rule  in  preaching  a 
sermon  as  it  is  in  living  the  Christian  life : 
"  lay  aside  every  weight ;  "  every  thing,  that  is, 
which  catches  you  as  with  a  hook ;  and  the 
habit  of  remembering,  which  so  easily  winds 
itself  about  you ;  and,  being  sure  of  your  general 
governing  scheme  of  thought,  let  the  details,  of 
illustration  and  expression,  be  largely  those 
which  suggest  themselves,  either  in  consequence 
of  previous  thought,  or  without  that. 

Then  if  you  preach  the  sermon  a  second  time 
the  hearers  will  find  in  it  the  same  general  plan, 
but  a  different  physiognomy.  The  filling  out  of 
the  plan  will  be  so  different  —  in  forms  of  state- 
ment, subordinate  thoughts,  illustrative  images 
or  examples  —  that  the  effect  of  it  will  be  wholly 


I20  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

new.  The  sermon  re-preached  will  be  substan 
tially  as  fresh  as  at  first.  A  clergyman  lately 
deceased,  in  New  England,  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  '  an  old  sermon,  with  a  new  text,  and  a 
new  application,  is  as  good  as  a  new  one,  because 
of  its  new  collar  and  cuffs.'  But  if  you  follow 
my  different  plan,  and  have  the  same  text,  if 
you  like,  and  the  same  outline,  but  with  such 
different  subordinate  thoughts,  whenever  you 
preach,  as  are  then  suggested  —  accepting  them 
as  they  come,  integrating  them  with  the  dis- 
course as  you  proceed  —  the  sermon  will  be 
always  practically  a  new  one ;  as  related  to  your 
mind,  as  related  to  your  hearers.  It  will  have 
the  same  bones,  but  with  a  different  covering,  a 
different  coloring,  and  in  fact  a  wholly  fresh  and 
individual  life. 

Still  further,  and  Fourthly  :  After  this  care 
of  your  health  of  body,  and  your  energy  of  mind, 
and  this  careful  mastery  of  the  general  plan  to  be 
followed  in  the  sermon,  it  is  necessary  also  that 
you    have    command   of  sufficietit    subordinate 


KEEP    THE    MIND    FREE.  121 

trains  of  thought  to  aid  you  in  unfolding  and 
impressing  the  subject.  —  Have  images  in  mind, 
illustrative  instances,  whatever  may  be  needed 
to  set  forth,  exalt,  enforce  your  theme.  But 
never  suffer  yourselves  to  be  commanded  by 
them.  Be  always  careful  to  keep  yourselves  free 
from  any  such  subjection  to  them  that  you  will 
feel  bound  to  recall  and  reproduce  them. 

The  distinction  here  is  the  very  obvious  and 
familiar  distinction  between  voluntary  recollec- 
tion, which  always  implies  effort,  and  involuntary 
recollection,  where  things  come  up  to  us  '  of 
themselves,'  as  we  say.  It  is  the  latter  by  which 
we  should  aid  ourselves  in  preaching,  not  the 
former.  There  are  many  things  which  we  recall 
only  by  a  positive  exertion  ;  names,  dates,  the 
location  of  unfamiliar  towns  on  the  map,  the 
technics  of  any  art,  the  scientific  nomenclature  ; 
in  general,  any  thing  unconnected  and  new.  Un- 
less my  memory  deceives  me,  one  of  your  pro- 
fessors was  beginning  the  study  of  Hebrew  with 
me  in  'ihe  seminary,  when  the  professor  having 


122  PREACHING   WITHOUT    NOTES. 

charge  of  the  class  wrote  some  disconnected 
characters  from  the  Hebrew  alphabet  on  the 
black-board,  —  Aleph,  Daleth,  Samech,  Tsade, 
and  so  on,  —  taking  them  at  hazard,  as  they 
occurred  to  him  ;  and  our  friend  was  suddenly 
asked  to  pronounce  them.  After  looking  a  mo- 
ment he  was  compelled  to  confess  that,  though  he 
knew  the  old  Hebrew  gentlemen  by  sight,  to  save 
his  life  he  could  not  yet  call  them  by  name.  He 
got  so  afterward  that  he  could  call  them  by  name, 
with  instant  accuracy ;  and  it  is  wholly  unneces- 
sary to  praise  the  progress  in  that  acquaintance 
which  he  has  since  made,  or  the  use  he  has  made 
of  it.  But  at  that  early  time,  to  recall  them,  on 
the  instant,  was  quite  beyond  him. 

There  are  other  things,  however,  which  one 
recalls  without  the  slightest  conscious  effort ; 
which  picture  themselves  upon  his  mind,  with  a 
vividness  ineffaceable,  and  which  reappear  when 
he  least  is  expecting  them.  The  Sistine  Ma- 
donna, the  Transfiguration,  some  charming  Swiss 
or  Italian  landscape  with  lake  and  mountains,  a 


INVOLUNTARY  RECOLLECTION.      1 23 

sunset  at  sea,  the  face  of  a  friend  —  these  do  not 
need  to  be  summoned  back.  They  present  them- 
selves without  our  call ;  and  sometimes  rise  up 
most  distinctly  when  the  thoughts  had  seemed 
entirely  preoccupied  with  other  things.  When 
the  mind  is  in  a  fervent  and  stimulated  state,  such 
things  occur  to  it,  and  a  multitude  of  others,  most 
rapidly  and  surely.  They  come  in  throngs,  one 
suggesting  another,  all  pushing  on  swiftly  for 
recognition,  and  if  need  be  for  use. 

Now  it  is  this  involuntary,  spontaneous,  self- 
suggesting  recollection,  by  which  one  who  speaks 
without  notes  must  be  aided  ;  and  the  process 
of  training  it  to  render  such  assistance  is  very 
simple. 

In  the  case  of  a  sermon,  for  example  :  as  you 
first  think  the  subject  carefully  through,  subor- 
dinate trains  of  thought  will  occur,  illustrating 
the  main  one  ;  passages  in  literature  will  be  sug- 
gested, perhaps  ;  historical  examples ;  Scriptural 
analogies  ;  scenes  in  nature,  or  startling  passages 
in  personal  experience ;  all  bearing  upon  the  sub 


124  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

ject,  and  which  rise  to  your  mind  in  instant  and 
fit  connection  with  it.*  It  is  well,  I  think,  to  make 
a  brief  memorandum  of  such,  indicating  them  at 
least  by  a  line  or  a  catch-word  on  the  brief. 
When  you  go  through  the  subject  again,  say  on 
Saturday  evening,  some  of  these  will  again  occur, 
and  others  will  not ;  but  in  place  of  those  which 
do  not  come  back,  if  your  mind  is  in  an  active 
and  a  fruitful  condition,  others  will  suggest 
themselves.  Now  look  at  your  notes,  and  add 
references  to  these,  noticing  again  what  you  pre- 
viously had  thought  of,  but  have  now  overlooked. 
Thus  you  have  at  a  glance  before  you  all  that 
has  been  suggested  to  your  mind,  in  connection 
with  the  subject.  It  will  be  almost  certainly 
more  than  enough  to  fill  your  sermon ;  and  when 
you  finally  recall  it,  in  the  morning,  whatever  is 
best  in  it  will  be  likely  to  come  back. 

Then  go  and  preach  ;  and,  in  the  pulpit,  that 
which  had  previously  approved  itself   to   your 
mind  as   fit,  striking,  germane  to  the  subject, 
*  Note  XVIII. 


NEVER    STOP    TO    RECALL.  1 25 

will  again  almost  certainly  be  suggested,  com- 
ing up  after  its  own  law,  and  often  in  the  very- 
words  in  which  it  first  was  presented  to  the 
mind.  Then  give  it  as  it  comes.  Never  stop  to 
recall  any  thing  which  you  are  vaguely  and 
doubtfully  conscious  of  having  purposed  to  say, 
but  which  has  somehow  slipped  from  your 
thought.  The  pause  is  perilous  ;  and  you  prob- 
ably will  not  get  back  what  you  miss.  You  have 
seen  a  boy,  perhaps,  pushing  his  arm  between 
the  pickets  of  a  fence  to  get  the  round  and  roll- 
ing foot-ball  which  has  fallen  beyond  it.  He  can 
just  touch  the  ball  with  his  fingers,  but  cannot 
grasp  it  ;  and  the  moment  he  presses  it,  off  it 
rolls.  So  it  is,  often,  with  the  thought  which 
a  speaker  tries  to  recover,  when  he  has  passed 
it.  It  slips  away  again  the  instant  you  reach 
for  it,  and  will  not  come  back  ;  while,  in  the  effort 
to  regain  it,  you  have  lost  your  hold  upon  the 
congregation. 

Men    are     not     responsive    to    an     introverted 
BDind.      You   never    notice,   yourselves,   what    an 


126      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

absent-minded  man  is  saying  to  you  ;  it  is  sound, 
without  thought  in  it.  And  if  your  mind  is  not 
with  the  people,  but  hunting  for  something  back 
of  yourself,  you  might  much  better  be  saying 
nothing.  There  is  nothing  an  audience  more 
enjoys  than  being  directly  and  forcibly  addressed, 
by  a  full  mind,  which  has  studied  its  subject,  and 
now  is  pouring  out  its  thought  without  hesita- 
tion, without  reserve.  But  they  recoil,  and  slip 
from  the  grasp,  the  moment  they  see  that  your 
principal  effort  is  to  recall  things,  not  to  impress 
things  already  in  mind.  They  love  to  be  com- 
manded ;  but  they  hate  the  cowardice  which 
springs  from  a  memory  imperfect  and  uneasy. 

So  avoid  this  peril.  Have  plenty  of  thoughts 
beforehand  in  your  mind,  but  let  them  come  to 
your  lips  as  they  will ;  and  if  they  don't  come, 
never  go  back  for  them.  They  will  come  again, 
at  some  other  time  ;  and  meantime  others  which 
veiy  likely  are  better,  will  come  in  theii  place, 
if  you  go  forward.  Lord  Brougham  said  of 
Burke  that  his  finest  images  are  not  those  which 


DR.    kirk's   illustration.  12/ 

he  had  meditated  beforehand,  but  those  which 
were  struck  from  his  intense  mind  in  the  heat  of 
debate  :  '  like  sparks  from  a  working  engine,  and 
not  like  fire-works  for  mere  display.'  One  can 
never  repeat  such  passages  afterward,  with  the 
vividness  and  force  which  belonged  to  them  at 
first.  The  inspiration  of  the  occasion,  which 
shot  its  force  through  them,  cannot  be  replaced. 
Dr.  Kirk,  in  the  earlier  years  of  that  part  of 
his  ministry  which  followed  his  return  from 
Europe,  was  wont  to  preach  without  full  notes, 
though  I  think  he  always  used  some  in  the  pul- 
pit. Once,  when  he  was  preaching  at  Pittsfield, 
a  gentleman  who  was  sitting  in  the  gallery  has 
told  me  that  he  described,  toward  the  end  of  his 
sermon,  the  way  of  worldly  pleasure  and  gain, 
without  thought  of  God,  as  a  smooth  broad  road, 
along  whose  easy  and  gradual  slopes  men  care- 
lessly walked,  till  they  came  on  a  sudden  to  the 
precipice  at  the  end  ;  and  so  vivid  was  the  final 
image,  as  it  flashed  from  his  mind  upon  the 
assembly,  that  when  be  depicted  them  going  over 


128  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

the  edge,  a  rough-looking  man,  who  sat  next  to 
my  friend,  rose  in  his  place,  and  looked  over  the 
gallery-front,  to  see  the  chasm  into  which  they 
were  falling!  The  whole  figure  had  doubtless 
come  with  a  rush  to  the  mind  of  the  preacher. 
It  was  as  vivid  to  Dr.  Kirk,  on  the  instant  of  its 
utterance,  as  it  was  to  this  hearer.  The  whole 
swing  of  the  sermon  was  behind  it,  as  it  leaped 
into  speech  ;  and  it  could  not  have  been  repeated, 
with  any  thing  of  the  same  effect.  An  effort  to 
reproduce  it,  afterward,  would  have  been  like  cut- 
ting the  flower  from  stalk  and  root,  to  brighten 
other  days  with  its  beauty.  What  at  first  was 
spontaneous,  would  have  then  been  a  matter  of 
mere  art  and  mechanics. 

So  never  go  back  to  remember  things,  which  do 
not  spontaneously  come  up  to  your  mind  while 
you  are  speaking.  Make  as  full  preparation  as 
you  can,  but  leave  it  if  it  lingers.  Let  the  push 
of  your  soul  be  in  all  that  you  say,  and  every 
sentence  be  charged  with  the  vitality  of  an  ad- 
vancing and  out-giving  mind. 


THE    MIND    READY   FOR   WORK.  1 29 

Next  week  I  shall  speak  of  some  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  conditions  of  success  in  preaching 
without  one's  notes.  What  I  have  to  say  to-day 
closes  here.  If  you  have  within  you  the  inspir- 
ing conviction  that  the  Gospel  has  come  from  the 
mind  of  God,  and  is  indispensable  to  the  welfare 
of  man ;  if  you  are  then  careful  to  keep  your  whole 
physical  vigor  at  the  highest  attainable  point,  and 
to  keep  your  mind  in  a  state  of  correspond- 
ing activity  and  energy  ;  if  you  make  the  plan 
of  your  sermon  simple  and  natural,  and  imbed  it 
in  your  thoughts,  so  that  the  mind  in  treating  the 
subject  naturally  runs  along  on  that  plan,  without 
effort  or  care,  and  is  all  the  while  free,  ready  for 
whatever  suggestions  may  come  ;  if  you  have 
sufficient  command  of  subordinate  trains  of 
thought,  of  illustrations,  images,  historical  in- 
stances, germane  to  the  subject,  but  are  not 
yourself  commanded  by  them,  and  are  ready  *'o 
take  them  or  to  leave  them  according  as  at  the 
moment  they  recur,  or  fail  to  appear;  —  then  you 
have,  I  think,  the  essential  physical  and  mentaJ 


130      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

conditions  of  that  success  which  is  possible  for 
you.  You  may  speak  then  with  freedom,  force, 
pleasure,  and  with  direct  and  useful  effect  on  the 
minds  you  address ;  with  more  effect,  I  suspect, 
oftentimes,  than  if  you  read  a  careful  essay. 

So  fulfil  these  conditions,  Gentlemen :  and  then 
follow  the  advice  which  Jehoshaphat  gave,  when 
he  set  of  the  priests  and  the  chief  of  the  fa- 
thers to  be  judges  in  Israel,  and  gave  them  their 
motto,  —  among  the  grandest,  I  think,  in  all  his- 
tory ;  certainly  there  is  none  like  it  in  the 
Kaiser-saal  at  Frankfurt,  under  all  the  portraits 
of  German  emperors  which  there  are  assembled, 
—  "  Deal  courageously ;  and  the  Lord  shall  be 
with  the  good  1 " 


THIRD    LECTURE. 


Mr.  President :    Young  Gentlemen :  — 

In  each  of  these  talks  to  you  I  illustrate  in 
myself,  as  I  am  quite  aware,  one  of  the  disad- 
vantages connected  with  the  practice  of  speak- 
ing without  notes  ;  a  disadvantage  which 
becomes  especially  noticeable,  and  especially 
important,  when  one  has  a  large  subject  to  pre- 
sent, the  treatment  of  which  must  be  com- 
pressed into  a  comparatively  small  space  of 
time. 

I  have  been  conscious  every  time,  after 
speaking  to  you,  that  there  were  many  things 
which  I  had  not  touched,  of  which  I  should 
have  been  glad  to  speak  if  the  hour  had 
permitted,  and  if  I  had  not  spoken  under  the 

«3« 


132  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

pressure  of  its  sharp  limitations.  I  feel  the 
same  thing  more  keenly  to-day,  because  each  of 
the  points  which  I  have  to  present  is  deserving 
of  special  and  separate  treatment,  and  might 
reasonably  occupy  a  full  hour  by  itself :  while  I 
have  to  present  them  all  within  the  same  limits, 
or  as  near  that  as  I  can.  It  seems  like  trying 
to  squeeze  the  thousand  volumes  of  a  library 
into  one  book-case  :  or  to  pack  the  entire  furni- 
ture of  a  room  in  a  couple  of  trunks. 

I  shall  be  constrained  to  treat  the  subjects  rap- 
idly, cursorily,  in  a  way  which  I  fear  will  seem  to 
your  minds,  as  well  as  to  my  own,  unsatisfactory. 
But  I  have  no  alternative,  having  no  other  after- 
noons on  which  I  could  properly  ask  you  to  hear 
me,  or,  indeed,  on  which  I  could  promise  to 
meet  you  here,  I  must  therefore  do  briefly,  in 
a  summary  way,  what  it  would  be  pleasanter  to 
do  more  at  leisure,  with  larger  scope  ;  since 
whatever  I  am  to  say  must  be  finished  to-day. 

In  the  last  talk  I  spoke,  as  you  will  remember, 
of   certain    physical  and   mental   conditions   of 


CONDITIONS    OF   SUCCESS.  1 33 


success  in  preaching  w'thout  one's  manuscript. 
These  are,  all  of  them,  important  in  themselves. 
But  they  become  still  more  important  as  con- 
nected with  others,  moral  and  spiritual,  which 
are  to  them  ulterior  and  supreme.  First  comes 
always,  in  God's  arrangement,  that  which  is 
natural ;  and,  afterward,  that  which  is  spiritual. 
The  conditions  which  I  have  to-day  to  present 
stand  in  this  Divine  order ;  and  they  come  last 
because  they  are  highest.  They  are  not,  indeed, 
important  only  to  one  who  speaks  without  his 
notes.  They  are  important  also,  perhaps  as 
much  so,  to  one  who  carefully  writes  his  sermons. 
But  they  are  indispensable  to  the  first ;  and  it  is 
his  need,  his  proper  self-discipline  and  equip- 
ment of  mind,  which  I  am  trying  to  set  before 
you.  I  should  leave  the  whole  subject,  there- 
fore, most  inadequately  treated,  if  I  did  not  pro- 
ceed to  speak  of  these,  as  I  intend  to  do  to- 
day. 

The  First  of  them  which   I  specify  is  this : 
One   should   have   a   distinct   and  an  energetic 


134  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 


settse  of  the  importance  of  that  particular  subject 
on  tuJiicJi  he  is  to  preach  at  the  time. 

I  said,  at  the  beginning  of  the  lecture  last 
week,  that  the  minister  should  have,  as  a  neces 
sary  pre-requisite  to  any  real  success  whatever, 
a  serious,  paramount,  inspiring  sense  of  the 
Divine  origin  and  authority  of  the  Gospel,  and  of 
its  transcendent  importance  to  men.  This  is 
indispensable  to  success  in  preaching,  either  with 
notes  or  without  them.  Unless  one  has  it,  it 
is  hard  to  see  why  he  should  enter  the  ministry 
it  all ;  and  if  he  does,  he  will  be  almost  certain 
to  fail, — not  understanding  his  own  errand  in 
the  world,  and  not  having  his  forces  fully  drawn 
forth  by  the  truth  which  he  presents. 

I  do  not  now  repeat,  you  observe,  what  I  then 
said ;  but  I  add  to  it  this  essential  particular, 
that  he  should  have  also  a  distinct,  animating, 
inspiring  impression  of  the  importance  of  that 
individual  subject  upon  which  he  is  at  the  time 
to  preach  —  of  the  theme  which  he  has  immedi- 
ately in  hand. 


IMPORTANCE   OF   SUBJECTS.  1 35 

It  has  such  importance,  if  it  is  really  a  part  of 
the  Gospel ;  and  if  it  is  not,  he  ought  not  to 
bring  it  to  the  pulpit  at  all.  As  compared  with 
other  truths  embraced  in  the  great  complex  har- 
mony of  Revelation,  it  may  not  have  a  superior, 
possibly  not  even  an  equal,  importance.  There 
are  orders  and  hierarchies  in  the  Divine  realms, 
both  of  being  and  of  truth.  Not  every  doctrine 
is  so  fundamental  as  is  that  of  human  depravity. 
Not  every  fact  is  so  central  in  the  Gospel  as  is 
that  of  the  Passion  and  the  Cross.  Not  every 
truth  is  so  dominant  and  supreme  as  is  that  of 
the  Judgment  to  come.  It  is  not  every  particular 
in  the  life  of  the  Lord  which  has  such  import- 
ance in  itself,  or  such  a  power  to  quicken  us,  as 
has  the  Resurrection.  It  is  not  every  one  of 
the  Psalms  which  is  so  attractive  or  so  impressive 
to  the  Christian  heart  as  is  the  twenty-third  or 
the  fifty-first. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  true  that,  as  compared 
with  the  subjects  which  ordinarily  engage  the 
attention  of  men,  any  theme  suggested  by  the 


136      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

Gospel  to  the  mind  of  the  preacher  —  which  is 
itself  a  part  of  that  Gospel  —  has  an  intrinsic,  a 
continuing,  a  surpassing  importance.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  whole  structure,  as  is  every  part  of 
the  stately  column, — base,  shaft,  capital,  and  the 
very  volutes  upon  it.  It  is  important  to  all  the 
rest,  as  is  every  member  of  the  human  frame, 
—  the  eye,  the  ear,  the  finger,  and  the  foot, 
as  well  as  the  nobler  heart  and  brain.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  Divine  word  ;  one  of  God's  thoughts, 
which  He  has  spoken  to  the  world,  through  men 
inspired  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  if  it  was  worth 
while  for  Him  to  speak  it,  certainly  it  is  worth 
while  for  us  each  one  to  meditate  upon  it,  and 
proclaim  it  to  others. 

It  has,  too,  its  own  great  office  to  accomplish. 
It  is  one  of  the  instruments  which  God  means 
to  use  for  quickening  and  renewing  the  souls  of 
men ;  which  is  in  fact  used,  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
for  that  august  end.  Whether,  therefore,  it  seem 
to  us  more  or  less  important  in  itself,  if  employed 
for  that  sublime  result  it  has  immense  and  im- 


THE   HUMBLEST    TRUTH   USEFUL.  1 37 

mortal  value  and  you  can  never  say  before 
hand  whethei  this  or  that  particular  truth  shall 
be  the  means  which  God  will  use.  Sometimes 
He  takes  the  humblest  truth,  as  it  looks  to  us, 
and  makes  it  most  efficient  to  accomplish  His 
end.  The  rod  of  Moses  had  no  power  in  itself 
to  roll  back  the  waves,  or  to  make  them  again 
return  in  strength ;  but  God  gave  it  such  power. 
The  mantle  of  Elijah  had  no  charm  in  itself  to 
divide  the  waters  of  Jordan  when  it  smote  them; 
but  God  gave  it  its  efficiency.  And  sometimes, 
as  if  to  magnify  his  grace,  and  set  forth  most 
fully  the  glory  and  the  choice  of  His  sovereign 
will,  He  makes  what  seems  to  man  unimportant 
the  instrument  of  His  greatest  work,  A  narra- 
tive may  do  more  than  a  large  and  careful  devel- 
opment of  doctrine.  A  portrait  of  character,  or 
of  any  trait  in  it,  may  bless  men  more  than  pre- 
cept, or  argument,  or  an  elaborate  exposition  of 
prophecy.  What  seems  the  least  becomes  often 
the  mightiest,  when  the  push  of  God's  Spirit  is 
behind  it 


138      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

Always,  therefore,  remember  that  the  special 
truth  which  you  are  to  treat  has  importance  in 
itself,  and  may  be  the  instrument  in  the  Hand 
above  for  accomplishing  the  work  toward  which 
your  entire  labor  is  tending ;  and  then  engage 
your  mind  to  it  for  the  time,  as  if  no  other  sub- 
ject existed.  Keep  it  in  distinct  and  quickening 
contemplation.  Be  the  'man  of  one  idea,'  till 
your  sermon  is  ended  ;  and  let  that  idea  be  the 
one  before  you. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  do  this.  All  that  you 
need  is  to  hold  the  subject  before  your  thoughts 
until  its  relation  to  God's  mind,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  to  His  revelation,  and  on  the  other  to  the 
minds  of  your  hearers,  is  evident  to  you,  and  you 
have  felt  the  impression  of  it.  It  is  one  of  the 
best  tests  of  a  subject,  of  its  intrinsic  solidity  and 
value,  if  it  will  bear  such  intent  and  continuing 
meditation.  If  it  will,  it  will  bear  discussion  in 
the  pulpit.  You  may  throw  your  whole  weigh  t 
on  it,  without  diffidence  or  reserve.  But  if  it 
shrinks,  as    you   consider  it,  gives  way,  shows 


TEST   OF   A   SUBJECT.  1 39 

weakness,  depend  upon  it  it  is  some  theory  of  your 
own,  which  has  not  the  validity  that  belongs  to 
God's  truth.  Take  the  iron-pyrites.  It  sparkles 
like  gold,  and  you  think  for  the  moment  that  it 
is  gold,  perhaps.  But  when  you  lift  it  in  your 
hand,  it  is  light.  When  you  touch  it  wiih  the 
fire  of  chemical  analysis,  you  detect  the  fumes 
of  sulphur  in  it ;  while  the  gold,  with  no  more 
gleam  on  its  surface,  is  solid  and  pure.  In  like 
manner,  take  a  subject,  look  at  it  on  all  sides, 
hold  it  before  your  attentive  scrutiny,  till  you 
have  ascertained  all  that  is  in  it  ;  and  then,  if  it 
still  satisfies  your  mind,  and  quickens  your  heart, 
it  is  a  subject  to  preach  upon. 

Nor  is  it  at  all  dangerous  to  do  this.  It  is 
sometimes  objected  that  a  preacher  will  become 
one-sided  and  narrow,  will  preach  only  on  a 
given  set  of  subjects,  if  he  follows  this  method, 
of  absorbing  himself  for  the  time  altogether  in 
the  theme  which  is  before  him.  But  there  is  not 
half  so  much  danger  of  this  in  preaching  without 
a  manuscript  as  with  one.     I  have  known  one 


140      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

man  who  preached  so  long  on  the  doctrine  of 
Sin  that  there  seemed  no  room  remaining  in  his 
mind  for  the  promise  of  Salvation  ;  and  anothei 
who  preached  upon  Fore-ordination,  till  one  was 
really  tempted  to  apply  to  him  the  rough  remark 
of  Robert  Hall  about  a  minister  who  did  the 
same  thing  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bristol  — 
that  '  he  must  have  been  fore-ordained,  from  all 
eternity,  to  be  a  fool'  And  I  have  known  one 
who  preached  upon  Baptism,  himself  a  paedo-bap- 
tist,  till  the  people  were  not  only  showered  but 
soaked  with  it.  Each  one  of  these  men  wrote 
his  sermons  ! 

You  will  remember,  perhaps,  what  I  said  in 
my  first  talk,  a  fortnight  ago,  about  the  necessity 
of  discharging  the  mind  of  each  subject,  suc- 
cessively, when  it  has  been  treated  ;  of  putting 
it  thoroughly  out  of  your  thoughts,  and  taking 
another  in  its  place.  This  is  difficult,  certainly  ; 
especially  at  first.  But  it  can  be  accomplished  ; 
and  one  can  form  the  habit  of  doing  it,  till  it 
shall  be  easy,  and  a  matter  of  course.     Do  this. 


THE   SUBJECT   TO   BE   SPECIFIC.  I4I 

then,  regularly.  When  you  have  preached  on  one 
subject  divest  your  mind  of  it,  and  take  another. 
In  that  way  treat  each  subject,  as  it  occurs, 
amply,  cordially,  eagerly,  with  enthusiasm,  with 
the  whole  force  of  your  mind  and  your  will 
centred  upon  it  for  the  time  ;  and  as,  by  degrees, 
you  go  the  round  of  that  great  system  which  lies 
before  you  in  the  Scripture,  ultimately  you  will 
have  treated,  with  fulness  and  force,  the  whole 
:ircle  of  Christian  truth,  precept,  and  promise. 

If  your  subject,  for  example,  is  the  nature  of 
faith,  keep  it  specific.  Do  not  allow  it  to  be- 
come mixed  in  your  thought  with  any  thing 
else.  Conceive  in  your  own  mind,  and  show  to 
others,  precisely  what  it  is  —  this  penitent  and 
loving  confidence  in  God,  who  is  declared  to  us 
in  Christ ;  which  has  in  it  the  element  of  power 
and  holiness,  and  which  is  the  condition  of  life 
eternal.  Have  it  as  clear  before  yourselves,  make 
it  as  clear  before  your  hearers,  as  was  the  out- 
line of  Grace  Church  tower  and  spire  to  me  a 
few  minutes    since,  as  I   walked   up  Broadway. 


142      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 


Or,  if  your  subject  is  the  power  of  faith,  treat 
that  as  distinctly ;  until  the  essential  heroism  of 
spirit  of  which  it  is  the  parent  comes  vividly 
before  you  and  your  people ;  till  they  see  that 
faith  is  everywhere  the  real  heroic  and  conquer- 
ing force  —  that  which  drives  the  explorer 
through  thick-ribbed  ice  of  Arctic  seas  ;  that 
which  sends  the  traveller  through  tangled  forests, 
malarious  swamps,  and  stony  deserts  of  Central 
Africa ;  that  which  pushed  Columbus  across  the 
sea  to  find  this  continent,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
stant fears  of  his  sailors  that  if  he  went  further 
his  ship  would  slide  over  the  rim  of  the  planet. 

Faith  is  the  true  power  of  heroism,  over  the 
world  ;  not  in  religion  only,  but  in  all  common 
and  secular  affairs.  It  gives  the  power  that 
moves  mankind.  Dwell  upon  that,  then,  in  your 
thougnts,  and  make  it  plain  and  palpable  to 
others,  till  they  with  you  cannot  help  but  see  the 
connection  there  is,  and  the  reason  of  the  connec- 
tion, between  evangelical  faith  on  earth  and  the 
vision   on   high  —  the   hope    to  which   it   here 


EACH   SUBJECT   IN   TURN.  I43 

inspires,    the    heaven   which    there    it    swiftly 
opens. 

So  if  your  subject  be  one  of  those  specific 
graces  which  Peter  commands  to  be  added  to 
faith  —  courage,  knowledge,  self-restraint,  patient 
endurance  —  either  of  those  which  he  would 
have  led  up  by  the  Christian,  hand  in  hand,  as 
in  the  Greek  chorus  :  consider  it  with  discrimi- 
nating attention ;  treat  it  distinctively  ;  show  its 
relation  to  the  entrance  which  shall  by-and-by  be 
richly  ministered,  as  by  a  chorus  of  saints  and 
angels,  into  the  kingdom  of  God's  glory.  If  it 
be  a  doctrine,  of  human  depravity  :  feel  it  your- 
selves, and  make  others  feel  it ;  the  depth,  the 
energy,  the  consequences  of  it.  So,  equally,  if 
it  be  regeneration,  atonement ;  or  if  it  be  only 
a  prophecy  that  you  interpret,  a  biography  that 
you  sketch,  a  passage  in  history  on  which  you 
throw  light,  a  parable  whose  meaning  you  inter- 
pret. Whatever  your  subject  be,  let  it  be  for 
the  time  the  one  engrossing  subject  of  your 
mind  ;   and  until  you  have  preached  on  it  let 


144  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

nothing  come  in  to  divert  in  the  least  attention 
frera  it. 

Carlyle  says  somewhere,  in  his  half-cynical 
fashion,  that  "  the  candid  judge  will  in  general 
require  that  a  speaker,  in  so  extremely  serious  a 
universe  as  this  of  ours,  have  something  to  speak 
about."*  It  is  a  good  rule.  Your  congregation 
will  hold  you  to  it ;  and  the  only  way  to  meet 
their  just  and  constant  demand  upon  you  is  by 
having  the  mind  thus  centred  upon  a  subject, 
filled  with  its  meaning,  made  alive  with  its  influ- 
ence. 

Here  is  one  vital  advantage  in  preaching  with- 
out one's  notes  before  him.  I  said  in  my  first 
talk  that  there  was  a  certain  disadvantage  in  this, 
in  the  matter  of  exchanges  ;  because  these  do 
not  give  the  relief,  when  the  manuscript  is  want- 
ing, which  they  otherwise  would.  But  there  is  a 
greater  disadvantage,  so  far  as  the  congregation 
is  concerned,  in  using  the  essay.  No  enthusiasm 
may  go  with  it,  or  out  from  it  upon  others.     A 

•  Miscellanies,  vol.  iv.  p.  31 1  ;  review  of  Scott's  Life 


INTEREST   THUS    KINDLED.  I4K 

sermon  which  is  read,  without  having  been  re- 
absorbed in  the  mind,  never  has  vital  virtue  in  it, 
I  have  heard  such  read  in  my  own  pulpit  —  man- 
uscript sermons,  yellow  with  time ;  and,  while  I 
would  not  undertake  to  set  bounds  to  God's  om- 
nipotence, I  have  said  to  myself  as  the  reading 
went  on,  '  there  is  not  the  least  natural  tendency 
in  a  thousand  such  sermons  to  convert  a  mouse.' 
But  if  you  follow  the  course  I  have  outlined,  and 
throw  your  whole  enthusiasm  for  the  time  into 
the  subject  which  you  are  treating,  when  you  are 
abroad  as  when  you  are  at  home,  there  will  no 
doubt  be  labor  in  it,  but  the  labor  will  bring  its 
great  reward,  in  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  good 
of  those  whom  you  address. 

Three  years  ago,  on  a  beautiful  Easter  Sunday, 
I  went  into  an  Anglican  Chapel  in  France,  and 
heard  a  sermon,  of  fifteen  or  eighteen  minutes' 
length,  on  the  Lord's  Resurrection.  At  the 
close,  the  preacher  said  :  "  And  now  if  there  be 
any  among  you  who  to-day  have  come  hither 
simply  upon  the  cold  legs  of  custom,  then  "  — 


146  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 


SO  and  so.  I  thought  it  not  an  impressive  ad- 
dress, considering  the  brightness  and  warmth  of 
the  day,  and  that  many  of  us  were  there  for  the 
first  time  in  our  life.  But  I  say  to  you,  Young 
Gentlemen  :  If  any  of  you  ever  go  into  the  pulpit 
'  simply  upon  the  cold  legs  of  custom,'  be  very 
careful  to  take  a  maiiuscript  with  you.  But  if 
you  go  to  speak  to  the  assembly  because  your 
mind  is  full  of  the  truth,  and  you  long  to  impart 
that  truth  to  them,  for  their  sakes  and  for  God's 
sake,  —  then  charge  your  mind  with  it,  and  speak 
it  with  all  the  force  you  can  give  it,  without  any 
notes. 

And  Secondly  :  To  speak  freely  and  usefully 
without  notes  one  should  have,  from  the  very 
beginning  of  his  discourse,  distinctly  in  view, 
a  definite  end,  of  practical  impression,  which  his 
discourse  is  to  make  and  leave  on  the  minds  be^ 
fofe  him.  —  He  must  speak  for  a  purpose  ;  and 
the  purpose  must  propel  and  govern  the  sermon. 

Of  course  this  is  not  peculiar  to  unwritten 
sermons      Every  sermon  should  have  such  an 


PRACTICAL    IMPRESSION    OF    TRUTH.  1 47 

end,  of  practical  impression,  present  from  the 
outset  to  him  who  prepares  it,  both  while  he  is 
preparing  and  when  he  is  preaching  it.  But  this 
is  absolutely  indispensable  to  one  who  is  to  preach 
without  aid  from  notes.  Otherwise  the  force  of 
his  moral  nature  will  never  be  enlisted  in  the 
work  he  has  in  hand. 

Your  venerable  Presbyterian  Form  of  Gov- 
ernment says  —  or  the  Introduction  to  it  says 
—  that  "Truth  is  in  order  to  goodness."  I  do 
not  live  under  that  Form  of  Government  pre- 
cisely, and  so  perhaps  I  should  prefer  to  modify 
somewhat  that  form  of  expression.  Truth,  I 
take  it,  is  in  its  essence  the  reality  of  things.  ; 
and  truth,  in  expression,  is  the  representation  of 
that  reality.  It  does  not  exist,  therefore,  I  sup- 
pose, with  reference  to  any  thing  ulterior  to 
itself.  It  is,  *  whether  or  no  ; '  without  regard  to 
consequences.  But  certainly  Truth  is  declared 
to  us,  the  Divine  Truth,  in  order  to  its  specific 
impression  upon  life  and  character ;  and  that,  I 
take  it,  is  really  the   import  of  this  statement 


148      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

The  whole  Bible  bears  on  practical  results  ;  and 
here  is  one  great  secret  of  its  power.  In  this, 
as  in  other  things,  it  is  unique  and  supreme  in 
the  world's  literature.  It  is  not  a  mere  collection 
of  interesting  biographies,  historical  narratives, 
precepts,  arguments,  proverbs,  songs  ;  but  it  all 
bears,  from  first  to  last,  on  definite  results,  —  the 
conversion  of  men  to  God,  their  upbuilding  in 
righteousness.  Whoever  preaches,  then,  on 
themes  derived  by  him  from  the  Bible,  should 
have  the  same  end  distinctly  in  view.* 

It  is  necessary,  as  I  said,  in  order  to  enlist  his 
moral  nature,  ardently,  thoroughly,  in  the  work 
he  has  to  do.  Intellectual  excitement  is  rela- 
tively without  warmth.  Intellectual  enthusiasm, 
for  a  proposition  which  has  no  special  practical 
relation  to  those  to  whom  it  is  being  presented, 
never  has  the  force  of  real  passion  in  it.  The 
heating  power  in  the  nature  of  man  is  in  its 
moral  element.  This  gives  the  inward  glow  and 
vividness  to  all  his  intellectual  processes,  when  it 

•  Note  XIX. 


AN    INTELLECTUAL   STIMULANT.  1 49 

inspires  them.  Power  and  impulse  always  come 
from  it. 

The  desire  after  practical  usefulness  is,  there- 
fore, indispensable  to  one  who  would  preach  well 
without  his  notes.  He  may  be  logical,  in  the 
absence  of  it ;  but  his  will  never  be  "  logic  on 
fire,"  till  his  moral  nature  has  clearly  in  view  an 
end  toward  which  it  is  steadily  working,  pushing 
the  instrumental  intellectual  force,  till  that  also 
glows  with  it. 

The  minister  requires  this,  also,  as  an  intel- 
lectual corrective  and  stimulant  ;  to  give  unity 
to  his  discourse,  progressiveness,  steadiness, 
and  an  easy  celerity,  to  his  mental  operations. 
Without  it,  he  will  be  like  the  ship  tossing  on  the 
waves,  hither  and  yon,  in  the  darkness  of  a  fog. 
The  fog  Hfts ;  the  headland,  or  the  light,  appears ; 
and  instantly  the  ship  swings  into  her  course. 
Instead  of  heaving  idly  about,  passive  on  the 
rolling  waters,  making  every  one  sea-sick,  she 
steadies  on  an  even  keel,  catches  the  wind  upon 
her  wings,  and  flies  toward  the  point  the  posi 


150  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

tion  of  which  has  now  been  revealed.  So  an 
ultimate  foreseen  point  d'appui,  a  rallying  point 
for  all  parallel  or  converging  lines  of  the  dis- 
course, is  necessary  to  give  steady  and  swif'i 
progressiveness  to  the  mind  which  moulds  and 
delivers  that  discourse.  The  converging  of  all 
subordinate  thoughts  into  one  grand  thought,  to 
be  pressed  upon  the  hearer,  then  is  secured ; 
like  the  convergence  of  the  streams  running 
toward  a  'clove'  in  the  line  of  the  hills.  Hither 
and  thither,  northward,  southward,  run  the 
brooks,  yet  ever  meeting  and  mingling  into  one, 
as  they  draw  toward  the  gap,  till  the  thousand 
trickles  become  a  torrent  as  they  pour  at  last 
through  the  gate  into  the  valley.  So  all  collateral 
thoughts,  arguments,  illustrations  of  a  sermon, 
when  bearing  upon  a  single  end  of  moral  impres- 
sion, combine  their  forces,  rush  together  at  last 
in  a  common  channel,  and  strike  with  heavy 
impact  on  the  mind. 

This   is   necessary,   too,  to  keep   men    from 
yielding  to  that  habit  of  discursiveness  which  is 


RESTRAINS    DISCURSIVENESS.  I5I 

the  easily  besetting  sin  of  many  full  minds,  and 
which  is  absolutely  fatal  to  one  who  is  speaking 
without  his  notes.  No  matter  how  brilliant  the 
mind  may  be,  how  richly  stocked  with  historical 
knowledges,  how  prolific  in  fancy,  image,  felici- 
tous phrase,  —  this  habit  of  discursiveness  will 
weary  out  the  most  patient  congregation. 

You  hear  one  begin,  for  example,  with  some  say- 
ing of  the  Master  to  John  the  Baptist,  or  to  one 
of  his  disciples.  First  he  describes  the  scenery, 
of  the  Jordan  valley,  or  of  the  shores  around  the 
sea  of  Tiberias  ;  then  the  persons,  to  whom  the 
saying  was  addressed  ;  then  the  possible  relations 
of  John  the  Baptist  to  the  sect  of  the  Essenes  ; 
then  the  relations  of  this  sect  to  the  others,  and 
to  the  whole  Herodian  family  ;  then  he  plunges 
into  the  interminable  tangle  of  the  Herodian 
genealogy,  and  shows  the  relations  of  this  one 
and  that  one  to  the  Roman  emperors ;  then  of 
the  Roman  empire  itself  to  the  ancient  civiliza- 
tion, with  a  tracing  out  of  the  roots  and  the 
fruits  of    that  civilization  ;    and  then    he   goes 


152  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 


kiting,  at  large,  through  the  universe  ;  —  till  the 
hour  is  ended  before  he  has  fairly  got  back  to 
his  text !  Nobody  can  stand  such  preaching  a 
great  while.  The  most  patient  listener  will  wish 
by-and-by  that  the  man's  brain  would  explode, 
and  so  make  an  end.*  The  best  corrective  to 
such  a  dangerous  tendency  of  mind  is  to  have 
an  end,  of  practical  impression,  always  in  view, 
from  the  outset  on.  As  soon  as  you  give  one  a 
purpose  to  be  accomplished,  things  will  fall  into 
their  places ;  extraneous  things  will  be  instinct- 
ively, and  of  course,  ruled  out ;  there  will  be 
motion  and  current  to  his  speech. 

This  is  important,  also,  as  it  regards  the  mere 
matter  of  style.  Studious  men,  dwelling  in 
'  the  solitary  and  still  air  of  delightful  studies,' 
are  apt  to  get  a  style  which  reminds  one  of  the 
remark  that  some  one  has  made  of  the  style  of 
TertuUian  —  "splendid,  but  dark,  like  polished 
ebony."  Or,  it  is  stiff,  with  interwoven  threads 
of  gold,  —  like  a  rich  brocade,  beautiful  to  look 
*  Note  XX. 


INFLUENCE    CN    STYLE.  1 53 

upon,  beautiful  for  parade,  but  not  fitting  the 
limbs,  not  furnishing  a  habit  in  which  the  mind 
may  freely  walk  and  freely  work.  That  is  the 
tendency  with  studio-\s  men ;  whose  literary 
enthusiasm  is  apt  to  get  the  mastery  over  their 
practical  evangelical  zeal.  Their  style  is  sure  to 
become  too  stately. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  dangerous  ten- 
dency in  speaking  without  notes  to  a  mere  wash 
of  words,  a  debilitating  fluency,  in  which  is 
neither  head  nor  point ;  where  nothing  arrests 
and  strikes  attention,  rouses  the  imagination, 
awakens  historical  recollection,  elevates  or  ani- 
mates any  power  where  all  is  a  dreary  out-pour 
of  verbiage,  incessantly  comiiig,  like  the  ribbons 
in  a  juggler's  trick.  "  What  color  will  you  have, 
Gentlemen  ?  "  and  out  it  comes  ;  twenty  yards  of 
blue,  and  then  twenty  of  pink,  and  more  and 
more  as  it  is  ordered.  The  man  who  thus  speaks 
seems  to  be  pulling  or  pumping  words  out  of 
some  bottomless  reservoir  within,  without  the 
smallest  possible  reference  to  any  result  to  be 


154  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

accomplished ;  and  his  own  feeHng,  his  own 
thought- power,  washes  away  on  the  flux  of  his 
words.  No  single  quality  which  style  ought  to 
have  is  present,  or  is  possible,  under  such  condi- 
tions. 

Dr.  Emmons  used  to  say  that  '  style  should  be 
like  window-glass,  perfectly  transparent,  and 
with  very  little  sash.'  *  That  is  good,  so  far  as  it 
goes ;  but  there  are  certain  important  qualities 
of  style  which  are  not  covered  by  that  descrip- 
tion. I  should  say,  rather,  that  style  is  to 
thought  what  the  body  is  to  the  spirit.  It  should 
be  itself  vital,  with  a  life  of  its  own,  sympathetic 
and  responsive  to  the  thought  within.  It 
should  be  proportionate,  symmetrical,  with  what- 
ever of  beauty  may  properly  belong  to  it.  It 
should  be  gentle  enough  to  fondle  a  child,  facile 
enough  to  laugh  or  sing,  strong  enough  to  strike 
a  heavy  blow,  for  righteousness  or  in  self-defence, 
A'hen  occasion  calls  for  it.  That  is  always  the 
oest  style  which  answers  most  perfectly  to  the 

»  N«te  XXI. 


TRUE   ELOQUENCE.  I 55 


thought  within,  as  the  body  to  the  spirit.  And 
you  can  get  such  a  style  as  that,  fashion  it,  keep 
it,  only  by  work.  You  do  not  get  it  in  the  Semi- 
nary, nor  out  of  books.  You  get  it  by  preach- 
ing, with  a  practical  aim  distinctly  in  view ;  by 
letting  youi  :huught  wreak  itself  upon  expres- 
sion, while  it  is  urgent  and  hot  within  you.  Thus 
you  gain  the  expression  most  natural  to  yourself, 
in  your  best  moods ;  and  always  you  will  find 
that  that  mode  of  expression  which  to  you  is 
most  natural  is  also  to  others  most  effective  and 
powerful. 

Observe  the  plain  uneducated  man  :  how  well 
he  talks,  when  he  has  an  end  to  accomplish  by 
it !  The  silent  man,  silent  in  all  common  assem- 
blies, —  there  comes  a  time  when  something 
calls  out  the  force  within  him,  some  story  to  be 
told,  some  enterprise  to  be  urged,  some  friend  to 
be  championed  ;  and  he  speaks  with  freedom, 
promptness,  power.  Without  knowing  it  him- 
self he  almost  realizes  Milton's  description  ol  a 
true  eloquence  :  *  his  words,  like  so  many  nimble 


156  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

and  airy  servitors,  trip  about  him  at  command, 
and  in  well-ordered  files,  as  he  would  wish,  fall 
aptly  into  their  own  places.'  * 

Hear  the  lawyer,  on  some  important  occasion, 
when  life  is  imperilled,  or  personal  liberty,  or 
when  large  properties  or  great  reputations  are 
suddenly  at  stake.  You  have  heard  him  as  a 
lecturer,  perhaps,  and  thought  him  dull,  or 
merely  rhetorical  —  more  intent  on  pleasing 
himself  with  his  fancies  and  phrases  than  on 
pushing  his  thought  into  your  mind.  But  now, 
before  the  jury,  when  these  great  interests  are 
dependmg  upon  him,  how  full  of  force,  impulse, 
persuasive  enthusiasm,  are  his  words !  His 
style  itself  is  ladically  transformed.  Every  sen- 
tence is  sharpened,  compacted,  inspired,  by  his 
endeavor  to  gain  his  end.  The  intensity  of  his 
purpose  puts  vigor  and  swiftness  into  his  speech. 
The  supreme  energy,  the  real  dsivoxi^g  in  utter- 
ance, only  then  comes  forth. 

Still  further,  too,  it  must  be  remembered  that 

*  Note  XXII. 


PRAYER   QUICKENED.  157 


a  man  who  is  intently  at  work  to  accomplish 
practical  results  by  his  preaching  will  pray  over 
his  sermons,  a  great  deal  more  than  will  another 
not  so  moved  ;  and  so  he  will  get  the  inspiring 
help,  the  unction,  and  the  grace,  which  come 
from  communion  with  the  Divine  Mind.  The 
closet  will  help  the  pulpit ;  and  there  is  no  force 
or  brilliance  of  mind,  no  fulness  of  knowledge, 
which  can  make  the  sermon  what  it  may  be  and 
should  be,  without  this  touch  from  above  upon  it. 
So  always  have  in  view,  Gentlemen,  a  definite 
end  to  be  accomplished  in  preaching.  Remem- 
ber Paul's  maxim :  "  I  press  toward  the  mark." 
It  is  as  good  and  true  in  sermonizing,  as  it  is  in 
Christian  life  and  character.  Have  an  aim  in 
the  sermon ;  and  never  be  satisfied  till  the 
sermon  is  as  fit  as  you  can  make  it  to  accom- 
plish that  aim.  A  man  in  the  Seminary  with 
me  once  said,  "  I  like  to  discuss  subjects  ;  but  I 
never  know  what  to  do  with  them,  after  they 
are  discussed.  I  can  only  leave  them,  and  go 
along."      Such  a  man  should  always  write  his 


158  PREACHING    WITHO  JT    NOTES. 

sermons,  if  he  preaches  at  all ;  as  an  army 
should  shelter  itself  in  a  fortress,  when  it  cannot 
or  dare  not  meet  its  enemy  in  the  field ;  as  a 
man-of-war  should  blaze  away  at  a  distance, 
when  it  has  no  pikes  or  cutlasses  to  board  with. 
But  if  you  are  intent  upon  practical  ends,  to 
which  your  whole  force  shall  contribute,  then 
the  manuscript  may  go.  For  then  your  mind 
will  gain  force,  foresight,  energy,  from  its  pur- 
pose ;  and  will  give  whatever  of  power  and  beauty 
are  natural  to  it  to  the  very  style  of  expression 
through  which  you  seek  to  lead  men  to  the 
throne  of  God.* 

Thirdly  :  Have  in  view  ittdividual  hearers 
in  the  congregation,  on  whom  you  desire  to  make 
your  impression,  and  with  whose  needs  you  are 
familiar;  to  whom,  therefore,  your  sermon  is 
particularly  adapted,  both  while  you  study  and 
when  you  preach  it. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  here  was  an 
advantage,  —  perhaps  I  should  modify  that 
*  Note  XXIII. 


INTEREST   IN   PERSONS.  1 59 

remark,  and  say  that  here  was  the  advantage 
if  anywhere,  — in  the  old  way  of  preparing  men 
for  the  ministry,  under  the  care  of  a  particular 
pastor,  as  compared  with  the  way  in  which  you 
are  being  trained,  and  in  which  I  was  trained, 
in  a  Seminary ;  under  more  learned,  scientific, 
and  laborious  teachers.  I  think  those  men 
learned  to  be  interested  in  persons,  where  we 
learn  chiefly  to  be  interested  in  subjects.  They 
came  in  contact  with  individual  minds,  in  a  way 
which  helped  them  in  all  their  ministry,  though 
their  training  was  certainly  less  elaborate,  sys- 
tematic, and  scholastic,  than  ours. 

Perhaps  this  disadvantage  in  the  modern 
system  is  compensated,  doubtless  it  is  dimin- 
ished, by  the  facilities  which  now  abound  for 
work  in  mission-schools,  Bible-classes,  prayer- 
meetings.  I  know,  in  my  own  experience,  that 
1  learned  some  things  from  a  Bible-class,  which 
I  taught  in  the  village-church  at  Andover,  which 
have  been  as  valuable  to  me  in  subsequent  life  as 
any  thing  which  I  learned  from  the  magnificent 


l60  PREACHING   WITHOUT    NOTES. 

lectures  which  during  the  week  I  attended  and 
enjoyed.  I  presume  it  is  equally  true  of  you. 
If  not  in  this  way,  then  in  some  other,  you  must 
get  into  vital  contact  with  persons,  as  well  as  with 
themes.  Otherwise  your  real  force  will  never 
come  out.  The  rays  of  light  get  heating  power 
by  being  focussed  through  a  lens,  and  made  to 
converge  upon  one  point.  So  a  man's  mental 
action  becomes  intense,  penetrating,  effective, 
as  it  contemolates  a  definite  effect,  on  persona] 
minds. 

Here  was  one  great  secret,  certainly,  of  Br 
Nettleton's  power.  I  do  not  know  that  his  ser- 
mons would  seem  extraordinary  to  us,  if  we 
should  now  read  them  ;  since  we  are  not  the  per- 
sons whom  he  had  in  view  in  preparing  and 
preaching  them.  But  they  were  immensely  effect- 
ive at  the  time,  because  he  had  before  him  indi- 
viduals, with  whose  states  of  mind  he  was  familiar, 
and  to  whom  the  truth  as  presented  by  him  was 
exquisitely  adjusted,  with  every  effort  and  every 
art.     As  a  "  fisher  of  men  "  he  surpassed  every 


THE   lawyer's    example.  i6i 

one  in  the  skill  and  assiduity  with  which  he 
angled  for  particular  souls.  Thousands  of  anec- 
dotes illustrate  this.  Accordingly  he  worked 
with  immense  facility,  sometimes  preparing  or 
remodelling  sermons  every  day  for  weeks  to- 
gether, and  preaching  them  afterward,  with  an 
interest  in  them  which  saved  him  from  exhaus- 
tion ;  because  his  thought  was  intently  fixed  on 
the  persons  whom  by  means  of  them  he  would 
reach. 

So  it  is  with  the  lawyer.  See  him  before  the 
jury,  in  a  case  where  his  convictions  are  strong, 
and  his  feelings  are  enlisted.  He  saw  long  ago, 
as  he  glanced  over  the  box,  that  five  of  those  in 
it  were  sympathetic  with  him  ;  as  he  went  on, 
he  became  equally  certain  of  seven ;  the  number 
now  has  risen  to  ten ;  but  two  are  still  left, 
whom  he  feels  that  he  has  not  persuaded  or 
mastered.  Upon  them  he  now  concentrates  his 
power,  summing  up  the  facts,  setting  forth  anew 
and  more  forcibly  the  principles,  urging  upon 
then:  his  view  of  the  case,  with  a  more  and  more 


1 62      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

intense  action  of  his  mind  upon  theirs,  until 
one  only  is  left.  Like  the  blow  of  a  hammer, 
continually  repeated,  till  the  iron  bar  crumbles 
beneath  it,  his  whole  force  comes,  with  ceaseless 
percussion,  on  that  one  mind,  till  it  has  yielded, 
and  accepts  the  conviction  on  which  the  plead- 
er's purpose  is  fixed.  Men  say,  afterward,  "he 
surpassed  himself."  It  was  only  because  the 
singleness  of  his  aim  gave  unity,  intensity,  an 
Dverpowering  energy,  to  the  mind  it  incited. 

I  remember  perfectly  that  the  first  time  I  ever 
had  any  thorough  sense  of  freedom,  facility,  self- 
forgetfulness  in  preaching,  was  when,  some  twen- 
ty-five years  ago,  a  gentleman  of  my  parish  — 
an  unusually  able  and  cultivated  man,  who  had 
occupied  high  political  and  social  positions,  and 
for  whom  I  had  great  respect  —  told  me  that  he 
was  practically  a  fatalist.  He  did  not  use  the 
word,  but  that  was  what  his  language  meant, 
He  believed  that  every  thing  came  to  pass  as 
God  intended  and  wished  that  it  should,  and 
that  all  things  would  come  out  right  in  the  end 


PREACHING    MADE   EASY.  163 

There  he  would  leave  the  whole  matter,  of  life 
and  of  the  future.  Well :  that  struck  at  the  foun- 
dation of  human  responsibility.  It  ruled  the 
Bible  out  of  the  world,  both  law  and  salvation, 
at  one  sweep.  It  in  fact  invalidated  human  law  ; 
taking  from  it  all  moral  elements  of  authority 
and  sacredness,  and  converting  it  into  a  simple 
mandate  of  force,  for  the  conservation  of  mate- 
rial interests.  I  was  determined,  if  possible,  to 
push  that  notion  out  of  his  mind  :  and  I  remem- 
ber now  the  enjoyment  which  I  had,  and  the 
easy  vigor  with  which  I  wrought,  in  taking  up  an 
argument,  weighing  it,  seeing  precisely  how  it 
bore  upon  this  point ;  then  treating  another  in 
like  manner,  and  another ;  combining  them, 
bringing  them  in  from  different  and  unexpected 
points,  —  until  it  seemed  to  me  the  demonstra- 
tion was  absolute,  certainly  to  my  mind,  hope- 
fully to  his.  When  I  came  to  preach  with  that 
concentrated  aim,  that  intense  desire  and  con- 
tinuing purpose  to  reach  if  possible  the  one 
mind   for   which   the   whole   sermon   had  been 


164  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

arranged,  preaching  was  as  easy  as  flight  to  the 
bird,  or  swimming  to  the  fish.  It  was  simply 
the  natural  motion  of  the  mind,  charged  with 
its  subject,  filled  with  the  argument,  and  intent 
upon  the  end  which  the  argument  was  to  serve. 

Before  that  my  sermons  had  been  always,  I 
think,  like  the  general  cannonading  which  pre- 
cedes the  real  shock  of  battle.  A  hundred 
guns  thundering  away  against  the  Cemetery- 
hill  at  Gettysburg,  and  a  hundred  guns  in 
tremendous  reply:  all  uproar  and  smoke,  but 
nobody  hurt !  It  is  the  rifle-ball  that  does  the 
business.  So  never  confine  yourselves  to  the 
contemplation  of  themes.  Make  themes  your 
means  for  reaching  persons  ;  and  give  the  mind 
force,  by  giving  it  concentration. 

The  true  evangelical  fervor  comes  in  this  way, 
with  affectionate  interest  in  personal  souls.  The 
Lord  himself  did  not  come  to  the  world  to  pub 
lish  elaborate  discourses  to  men.  He  was  full  ot 
the  truth  ;  and  the  truth  flashed  from  him,  as 
the  occasion  suggested.     A  sneering  objection 


VARIETY   THUS    SECURED.  1 65 

brought  one  discourse  from  him  ;  an  affectionate 
inquiry  elicited  another ;  the  dullness  of  his 
disciples  incited  another.  And  all  the  radiance 
which  fills  the  gospels,  flowing  from  His  mind 
over  the  world,  was  first  drawn  forth  by  the 
minds  around  Him,  to  which  He  would  minister 
light,  comfort,  purity,  hope.  In  this,  as  in  all 
else,  the  disciple  should  strive  to  be  like  his 
Lord. 

Observe,  too,  what  variety  you  secure  in  this 
way,  in  the  subjects  which  you  treat :  how  per- 
fectly you  avoid  the  danger,  which  may  otherwise 
be  a  great  one,  of  having  a  limited  series  of 
subjects,  on  which  your  mind  most  easily  works, 
and  to  which  it  returns  with  readiest  facility. 
You  avoid  this  wholly,  if  your  preaching  has 
persons  always  in  view,  and  not  merely  sub- 
jects. For  there  are  all  sorts  of  minds  in  a  con- 
gregation, and  in  all  sorts  of  states.  Here  is 
a  sceptic,  perhaps  propagating  his  scepticism, 
who  is  to  be  answered,  silenced,  if  possible  con 
vinced.     He^e  is  a  person  not  sceptical  in  tem- 


1 66      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 


per,  but  teased  with  unwelcome  and  disturbing 
doubts,  which  you  are  to  try  to  remove  and  dis- 
perse. Here  is  one  indifferent,  whom  you  must 
arouse,  and  startle  into  attention  to  the  truth  ; 
another,  inquiring,  undecided,  whom  you  must 
urge  into  the  way  of  righteousness.  There  are 
sinners  to  be  converted,  and  sufferers  to  be 
soothed;  the  tempted,  who  are  to  be  warned 
and  taught ;  the  imperfectly  developed  in  Chris- 
tian grace,  who  need  education  in  particular 
qualities ;  the  poor  who  must  be  cheered,  the 
rich  who  must  be  taught  a  more  generous  liber- 
ality, —  that  "  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive." 

Your  congregation  is  always  a  microcosm. 
Little  children  are  in  it,  as  well  as  adults ;  the 
aged,  as  well  as  the  young  and  strong ;  all  class- 
es of  minds,  in  all  sorts  of  relations,  each  with 
a  different  Past  behind  it.  If  you  preach  then 
to  individuals,  you  will  find  subjects  multiplying 
on  your  hands.  Faster  than  you  can  use  them, 
they  will  come.     As  you  take  each  class,  or  case^ 


PURSUE   THE   EFFORT.  167 


in  turn,  you  will  be  really  going  the  round  of 
the  Christian  scheme,  and  unconsciously  wiU 
be  giving  it  a  development  as  cosmic  and  many- 
sided  as  itself. 

And  when  you  thus  preach  to  individuals,  be 
sure  that  you  do  not  give  over  till  you  have,  if 
possible,  secured  success.  Don't  think  because 
you  have  preached  the  work  is  done  ;  or  because 
an  impression  is  strong  on  your  mind,  that  it 
must  of  necessity  be  equally  strong  upon  the 
minds  to  which  you  would  transfer  it.  A  minis- 
ter is  always  tempted  to  feel  that  because  his 
argument  is  convincing  to  himself,  it  must  be 
to  others ;  that  because  he  has  personally 
reached  a  high  point,  of  feeling  and  vision,  he 
has  carried  up  everybody  with  him  to  the  same 
It  may  not  be  so  at  all.  Your  expectation  may 
be  very  far  from  being  realized  ;  your  preaching 
be  less  effective  than  you  suppose,  and  the  re- 
sponse to  it  very  different.  Remember  that  you 
preach  amidst  influences  which  work  all  the 
while  against  your  efforts,  and  which,  not  unfr© 


1 68      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

quently,  push  out  the  truth  faster  and  further 
than  you  can  insert  it ;  so  that  the  same  man  who 
on  Sunday  was  moved  as  if  by  a  word  from  God 
himself,  has  forgotten  it  all  before  Monday  is 
ended.  One  who  weeps  to-day  may  scoff  to-mor- 
row, and  the  feeling  of  the  sanctuary  may  disap- 
pear altogether  in  Broadway  or  Wall  Street.  So 
keep  up  your  acquaintance  with  the  minds  you 
address,  and  never  expect  too  much  from  any 
one  sermon. 

A  lady  coming  home  on  one  of  the  steamships 
that  cross  the  Atlantic,  on  the  first  day  out  saw 
a  half-drunken  sailor,  who  was  insolent  to  the 
mate,  knocked  down  on  the  spot,  with  a  heavy 
blow.  The  blood  gushed  from  his  nostrils ;  his 
face  puffed  up  in  swollen  and  purple  ridges,  be- 
neath the  stroke :  —  it  was  to  her  simply  fright- 
ful !  She  was  sickened  by  it,  and  left  the  deck. 
Below,  she  soon  became  sea-sick ;  and  three  or 
four  days  passed  before  she  again  could  come 
upon  deck.  Then  she  saw  the  same  man  stand- 
ing at  the  wheel ;  and  going  swiftly  up  to  him, 


FORESIGHT  OF  CONSEQUENCES.      169 

she  asked,  with  womanly  sympathy :  "  How's 
your  head  to-day  ?  "  "  West,  nor' west,  and  run- 
ning free,"  was  the  answer  that  staggered  her. 
He  had  wholly  forgotten  what  to  her  had  given 
that  startling  shock.  You  laugh  at  this;  but 
you  will  often  find  that  it  just  about  parallels 
the  depth  and  the  permanence  of  the  impres- 
sion which  you  make  by  the  sermons  on  which 
you  most  rely.  What  you  thought  sure  to  be 
fruitful,  and  to  abide,  has  gone  from  the  memory 
of  those  whom  you  especially  addressed,  before 
the  morrow's  sun  is  up.  So  never  give  up  your 
thought  of  individuals,  and  your  purpose  to 
reach  them  with  the  truth,  until  you  know  that 
success  is  attained. 

And  Fourthly  :  Always  carry  with  you  into  the 
pulpit  a  sense  of  the  immense  consequences  which 
may  depend  on  your  full  and  faithful  presenta- 
tion of  the  truth. 

There  will  be  such  consequences  depending 
on  it;  since, when  you  preach, you  are  bringing 
the  grandest  moral   force  which  the  world   has 


170  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

known  into  contact  with  minds  constitutionally 
adapted  to  receive  and  retain  impressions  from  it 
It  is  not  from  ancient  history,  or  law,  that  you 
are  to  draw  your  lessons  and  your  motives.  It  is 
not  from  ethics,  or  speculative  philosophy.  It  is 
from  the  world  supernatural,  the  realms  invisi- 
ble ;  from  beings,  and  facts,  Divine  and  eternal. 
Hence  come  the  influences  which  you  are  set 
to  make  influential  upon  men's  minds ;  from  the 
Advent,  and  the  Ascension  ;  from  Sinai,  and  from 
Calvary ;  from  the  manger  at  Bethlehem,  and  the 
Judgment  throne.  If  you  feel  the  impression  of 
these  on  yourselves,  and  so  preach  to  others — 
if  you  are  each  a  living  Gospel,  believing  the 
word,  and  preaching  it  because  you  are  moved 
thereto  by  its  own  force — you  have  a  tremen- 
dous instrument  to  use.  Then  your  spirit  will 
help  your  words.  You  will  become  true  priests 
for  God,  radiating  to  others  the  influence  which 
first  has  come  to  yourselves  from  Divine  rev- 
elation. 

And  you  use  this  instrument,  accomplish  this 


DIFFERENT   IMPRESSIONS.  I7I 


office,  in  circumstances  the  most  helpful :  in  the 
shelter  of  the  sanctuary;  in  the  assembly  of 
communing  souls  ;  with  auxiliary  services,  appro- 
priate for  the  further  impression  of  the  truth; 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  —  that  still  harbor  in  the 
week,  surrounded  by  the  breakwater  of  even 
human  law,  on  whose  tranquil  bosom  the  soul  is 
sheltered  from  the  tumults  of  time.  You  are  to 
bring  the  Gospel,  then  and  there,  into  contact 
with  the  minds  before  you.  There  must  be  an 
impression  from  it,  falling  with  power  on  those 
who  hear  it.  This  cannot  be  otherwise.  It  may 
work  in  one  direction,  it  may  work  in  another. 
It  is  like  the  sunshine,  which  touches  the  mead- 
ows, and  makes  them  bloom  in  brighter  verdure, 
which  touches  the  sand,  and  makes  it  more  dry 
and  vitreous  than  it  was  :  which  touches  one 
metallic  plate,  treated  with  iodine,  and  turns  it 
purple ;  another,  treated  with  nitrate  of  silver, 
and  turns  it  black.  Some  will  resist  your  influ- 
ence :  you  cannot  help  it.  Some  will  accept, 
and  be  forever  quickened  by  it ;  and  this  shall 


1/2      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

be  to  you  a  joy.  You  will  feel,  then,  that  you 
are  accomplishing  the  noblest  office  which  God 
ever  gives  to  man  on  earth;  since  the  issue 
of  your  work  is  an  influence  upon  character, 
and  an  influence  upon  character  involves  influ- 
ence upon  destiny  —  immortal  destinies  flowing 
from  character.* 

In  revivals  men  feel  this ;  and  it  makes  the 
dull  eloquent  as  they  feel  it.  At  all  times  we 
should  feel  it,  when  we  enter  the  pulpit  to  de- 
clare to  men  God's  message  of  grace.  Often- 
times, when  we  are  wholly  unaware,  there  are 
minds  in  the  congregation  approaching  the  fate- 
ful point  of  transition  from  one  course  to  an- 
other, like  men  riding  side  by  side  in  a  railway 
carriage  till  they  reach  the  point  where  their 
paths  diverge.  They  have  come  from  Montreal 
to  Rutland,  perhaps  ;  riding  together  all  the 
way.  The:-e,  one  of  them  steps  to  another  seat 
For  a  space  their  tracks  run  parallel  still,  but 
by  degrees  they  diverge  ;  further,  and  further 
*  Note  XXIV, 


CRITICAL    POINTS    IN   EXPERIENCE.  1 73 

they  go  asunder ;  till,  of  the  two  so  lately  riding 
and  talking  together,  one  has  reached  Boston, 
Liverpool,  Berlin,  the  other  San  Francisco, 
Yokohama,  Hong  Kong.  Side  by  side,  a  few 
weeks  since,  and  now  the  diameter  of  the  earth 
between  them  !  At  any  time  there  may  be  be- 
fore you  minds  approaching  such  critical  points 
in  their  experience ;  the  turning-points,  from 
which  the  whole  course  of  their  life  shall  run,  in 
one  direction  or  the  other,  forevermore.  No  cir- 
cle of  the  centuries  shall  again  bring  them  to- 
gether. You  do  not  know  when  these  moments 
come  ;  and  should  always  preach  as  if,  among 
chose  whom  you  address,  there  might  be  some 
who  had  reached  them  now. 

What  a  striking  thing  that  is  in  the  crowded 
and  radiant  gospel  of  John,  full  of  sublimest 
discourses  and  events,  when  he  says  in  speaking 
of  his  first  meeting  with  the  Master :  "  It  was 
about  the  tenth  hour"  !  About  the  tenth  hour  .-• 
Why  put  so  unimportant  a  circumstance  into  a 
gospel  so  brief  at  the  best,  and  where  sublime 


1/4  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

things  have  hardly  room  ?  There  is  nothing 
strange  in  it.  John  could  not  forget,  and  must 
insert  it.  It  was  the  first  time  he  had  talked 
with  Him  whose  love  and  wisdom  became  there 
after  his  inspiration,  in  life,  and  death,  and  the 
hereafter ;  and  the  very  moment  was  vivid  still 
before  his  recollection.  He  remembered  just 
how  high  the  sun  was,  above  the  western  Medi- 
terranean, at  that  supreme  point  in  his  experi- 
ence. He  remembers  it  now.  So  there  are 
moments  in  the  experience  of  many,  when  they 
heard  from  the  pulpit  words  of  power,  declaring 
to  them  God's  love  in  Christ,  which  will  be 
memorable  to  them  forever,  —  as  long  as  the 
issues  of  the  choices  which  they  made  continue 
tc  unfold. 

You  will  not  discern  the  presence  of  such 
moments,  when  you  are  speaking ;  but  never 
forget  that  they  may  come,  in  any  sermon.  And 
so  let  the  consequences  possibly  depending  on 
your  faithful  and  full  presentation  of  the  truth 
be  always  distinctly  present  to  you.* 

*  Note  XXV. 


RESTRAINT    OF   ECCENTRICITY.  1/5 

The  thought  of  them  will  inspire  you  to  the 
best  use  of  every  power  which  you  possess,  that 
you  may  make  the  highest  thought,  the  widest 
study,  converge  upon  present  and  practical 
results.  It  will  have  the  effect  to  dignify  and 
ennoble  the  mind  itself ;  stirring  it  up,  as  the 
statesman  is  stirred,  on  the  great  occasion,  as  the 
lawyer,  when  pleading  for  life  in  peril  ;  making 
it  robust,  manly,  eager.  It  will  make  one  seri- 
ous, too,  reverent,  modest ;  and  will  keep  him, 
absolutely,  from  resorting  to  those  tricks,  antics, 
grimaces,  which  seem  now-a-days  to  be  coming 
into  fashion,  and  which  are  perhaps  more  likely 
to  be  adopted  by  those  who  preach  without  their 
notes  than  by  those  who  carefully  write  their 
sermons. 

In  regard  to  these  eccentricities  of  manner,  I, 
for  one,  would  speak  with  caution.  I  am  cer- 
tainly no  precisian,  in  regard  to  gesture  or 
speech  in  the  pulpit.  I  believe  that  every  man 
should  use  the  power  which  God  has  given  him, 
in    the  way  most  natural,  under  the  impulse  of 


1/6  P»EA.CHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 


the  supreme  consciousness  that  God  is  speaking 
His  truth  thiough  him.  If  the  teachings  of  any 
professor  hindered  me  from  that,  with  all  respect 
and  affection  for  him  I  would  forget  his  instruc- 
tions as  soon  as  I  could.  If  Dr.  Blair's  volumes 
stood  in  the  way  of  it,  I  would  tie  those  volumes 
in  one  big  package,  and  make  a  nice  grave  for 
them,  in  the  gardei.  or  the  sea.  Let  men  speak 
with  the  purpose  o[  reaching,  helping,  bless- 
ing others  ;  and  each  according  to  his  own  idiom, 
of  nature  and  of  habit."'' 

But  there  is  oftentime?  i\  tendency,  not  to  be 
individual,  idiomatic,  in  spoft^h,  but  to  be  theo- 
retical, imitative.  Because  oi:e  n.'eacher  gestures 
with  his  heels,  —  as  Mr.  Choate  was  cnce  said  to 
do, —  a  young  man  thinks  that  he  nmst  do  the 
same.  Because  one  drops  his  voice  to  a  whisper, 
and  follows  with  tremendous  explosions  oi  sound, 
somebody  else  feels  bound  to  do  likewise.  He 
becomes  in  fact,  without  intending  it,  a  hypo- 
crite, in  the  original  sense  —  vnoxQirrjg,  an  actor 
♦  Note  XXVI. 


SECOND-HAND    ECCENTRICITIES.  1/7 

Then  he  finds,  very  likely,  that  something  outr^ 
and  sensational  in  style  draws  an  assembly,  and 
so  he  seeks  to  reproduce  that ;  till  he  comes  to 
be  full,  in  his  own  utterance,  of  a  second-hand 
sensational  bosh,  without  substance  or  sense,  — 
reminding  one  of  what  an  English  lady  said  of 
the  shop-windows  in  Paris,  during  the  Prussian 
siege  :  that  "  they  showed  fifty  pots  of  mustard 
to  an  ounce  of  meat." 

Eccentricity  is  undoubtedly  sometimes  legiti- 
mate ;  the  privilege  of  an  anomalous  mind. 
Surprising  and  startling  things  sometimes  are 
useful ;  irritants  of  an  attention  which  would 
otherwise  fail.  But  when  one  attempts  to  imi- 
tate these,  to  ape  eccentricity,  to  systematize  sur- 
prises, and  to  put  on  the  manner  of  somebody 
else,  he  is  simply  contemptible,  and  certain  to 
fail.  Yet  when  the  itch  for  this  thing,  and  for 
the  transient  notoriety  which  it  brings,  has  once 
got  into  a  man,  there  is  no  friction  that  I  know 
of,  of  critical  ointments,  that  will  take  it  out. 
Nothing   but  a   thorough  alterative  will  do  it," 


178  PREACHING   WITHOUT    NOTES. 

and  the  only  proper  alterative  is,  a  sense  of  the 
far-extending  consequences  which  depend  on  his 
ministry.  That  will  make  him  serious,  sober; 
too  grave  for  grimaces,  and  too  thoughtful  for 
tricks.* 

It  will  keep  him,  too,  from  yielding  to  the 
temptations  to  negligence  and  indolence.  I  do 
not  know  whether  it  was  Occom,  the  Mohegan 
preacher  to  the  Montauk  Indians,  or  some  other 
Indian  candidate  for  the  ministry  —  Dr.  Prime 
perhaps  could  tell  us  —  who  was  asked  before  the 
Presbytery  the  question  which  your  Professor  of 
Theology  is  very  likely  to  ask  of  some  of  you : 
"  What  is  original  sin  ?  "  and  who  answered  that 
*  he  didn't  know  what  other  people's  might  be, 
but  he  rather  thought  that  his  was  laziness^ 
There  are  many  others  who  suffer  from  the 
same,  very  radical  in  the  soul ;  and  it  often 
develops  into  actual  transgression.  You  will  be 
more  in  danger  from  it,  if  you  have  some  facility 
in  extemporaneous  speech.     You  are  busy  with 

*  Note  XXVII. 


INDOLENCE    PREVENTED.  1 79 

otiier  things  during  the  week ;  you  postpone  any 
thorough  preparation  for  the  Sunday ;  you  find 
that  for  a  time  your  people  will  be  satisfied,  at 
least  the  unreflecting  will  be,  with  something 
which  has  not  cost  much  labor ;  and  after  a 
while  you  come  to  intermit  all  careful  and 
thorough  analysis  of  subjects,  and  to  trust  to 
superficial  suggestions,  and  to  hasty  and  careless 
forms  of  speech.  It  will  work  like  dry-rot,  eat- 
ing out  the  heart  of  your  strength.  Water  does 
not  run  down  hill  more  surely  than  such  a  man 
declines  in  power. 

The  way  to  guard  against  it  is,  to  bear  in 
mind,  as  before,  the  transcendent  consequences 
which  connect  themselves  with  what  you  do,  in 
the  pulpit,  and  before  you  enter  it.  Then  you 
will  feel  that  you  must  not  enter  it  without  full 
preparation  ;  that  the  interests  involved  are  too 
sacred  and  high.  Your  pulpit  will  be  the 
throne  of  your  thoughts,  through  all  the  week. 
Nothing  else  will  seriously  divert  your  mind 
from  the  work  to  be  done  in  it. 


l80  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

The  same  contemplation,  of  results  to  be 
realized  through  your  ministrations,  will  help  to 
form  in  you  that  instinct  of  skill  in  your  work 
of  preaching  which  no  Seminary  can  teach ; 
which  you  must  each  one  gain  for  yourselves, 
by  practice,  experience,  self-discipline,  observa- 
tion. There  is  such  a  practical  instinct  of  skill, 
in  every  art,  and  every  profession  ;  which  gives 
the  intuitive  law  of  success,  and  shows  the  only 
way  to  reach  it ;  by  which  one  can  instantly  use 
his  powers,  to  the  greatest  advantage,  with  the 
utmost  facility,  for  accomplishing  his  ends.  You 
see  it  everywhere.  One  man  takes  aim  at  the 
target  carefully,  and  misses  it  wholly  ;  another 
simply  raises  his  rifle,  apparently  without  aim, 
and  the  obedient  bullet  strikes  the  bull's-eye. 
One  man  pitches  and  rolls  in  the  surf-boat, 
wholly  unable  to  reach  the  shore,  till  a  wave 
overturns  him,  and  he  is  flung  upon  the  sand 
gasfing  and  drenched ;  another  slides  in  on  the 
incoming  breaker,  and  before  an  imperceptible 
turn  of  the  oar  the  boat  rides  smoothly  to  the 


THE   INSTINCT   OF   SKILL.  l8l 

beach,  landing  him  high  and  dry  on  its  safe 
ridges. 

So,  everywhere,  there  is  this  instinct  of  skill ; 
which  the  preacher  needs  to  get,  like  all  other 
workmen ;  which  he  can  get  only  by  earnest, 
continuous,  conscientious  work,  in  view  of  the 
results  which  depend  on  his  work.  When  he 
thus  labors,  he  will  find  after  a  while  that  the 
muscle  of  the  mind,  like  that  of  the  body, 
becomes  autonomic,  a  law  unto  itself ;  that  the 
intuition  with  which  it  works  is  a  safer  and 
surer  guide  than  precepts ;  and  that  better 
and  swifter  success  is  reached  than  the  most 
laborious  planning  could  have  gained. 

Remember,  therefore,  always,  when  you  go 
into  the  pulpit,  that  there  may  be  minds  before 
you  in  the  assembly  at  critical  points  in  their 
progress,  to  which  your  words  will  give  an  im- 
pulse, in  one  direction  or  another,  forevermore  ; 
that  there  certainly  are  minds  there  adapted  to  the 
truth,  and  sure  to  take  from  it  an  abiding  im- 
pression.  Then  your  preparation  will  be  thorough 


1 82      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

and  careful.  Then  you  will  learn  how  to  handle 
the  themes  committed  to  you  with  swiftest  and 
with  clearest  skill ;  and  then  whatever  you  do  in 
the  pulpit  will  be  done  with  earnestness,  effect- 
iveness, solemnity. 

And  Fifthly  :  Remember  always  to  carry 
with  you  into  the  pulpit  a  sense  of  the  personal 
presence  of  the  Master. 

Every  minister  should  do  that,  whether  he 
reads  his  sermon  from  a  manuscript,  or  speaks 
without  notes.  But  he  who  preaches  without 
his  notes,  pre-eminently  should  do  it.  The  pres- 
ence of  the  Master !  It  is,  indeed,  a  wonderful 
thing.  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  to- 
gether in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them."  That  is  the  promise,  the  divine  declara- 
tion ;  always  fulfilled.  It  sounds  like  romance. 
To  men  of  the  world  it  seems  no  more  than  a 
fairy-tale.  But  it  is  the  essential  truth  of  God's 
word,  the  grandest  reality  of  human  experience. 
Here,  in  this  room,  this  hour,  is  the  Master !  in 
every  assembly,  where  His  children  meet,  and 


SENSE  OF  Christ's  presence.  183 


where  His  kingly  word  is  spoken  !  By  the  brook, 
where  the  Covenanters  worshipped  ;  in  the  cata- 
combs, where  Christian  converts  first  uttered 
their  praises  ;  in  the  great  cathedral,  where 
through  all  symbols  devout  spirits  discern  the 
Lord  ;  in  wood  and  wilderness,  where  pilgrim 
and  pioneer  sing  and  pray :  everywhere  —  Christ 
is  present,  whom  saints  adore,  and  angels  serve ! 
And  where  He  is,  the  place  is  holy  :  the  service 
great. 

I  remember  words  which  I  heard  thirty  years 
ago,  when  graduating  from  the  Seminary,  which 
I  will  read,  if  you  will  allow  me.  They  were 
spoken  by  one  then,  and  ever  since,  an  honored 
and  eminent  pastor  in  Boston.  I  have  never  for- 
gotten them,  from  that  day  to  this  :  — 

"  In  a  certain  congregation  there  was  a  hearer 
of  whose  presence  the  preacher  was  not  aware 
during  the  delivery  of  his  sermon.  When  the 
fact  of  that  hearer's  presence  was  made  known 
to  him,  it  h?d  a  great  e/"fcct  upon  the  preacher. 
.  .  .  Who  was  the  preacher,  and  who  this  hearer  ? 


184      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

The  preacher  I  doubt  not  may  have  been  any 
young  minister  present,  and  the  hearer  was 
Jesus  Christ.  Every  time  we  have  preached 
we  have  had  Him  for  a  hearer.  When  the  great 
and  the  learned  and  the  honored  of  the  earth 
come  to  hear  you,  He  is  there,  whose  opinion  of 
you,  while  it  is  infinitely  more  important  than 
theirs,  will  either  confirm  or  reverse  their  judg- 
ment of  you.  When  we  meet  a  few  of  our 
flock  in  that  distant  school-house  on  a  dark  and 
stormy  night,  and  something  whispers,  Will  you 
waste  your  time  and  strength  on  these  poor 
people .''  the  Son  of  God  is  there  to  hear  what 
you  say  to  them,  and  to  have  an  opinion  of  you 
for  saying  it,  which  is  or  will  hereafter  be  a 
greater  reward  to  you  than  the  applauses  of  a 
throng.  In  the  bungalow,  or  under  the  plan- 
tain or  the  palm,  or  in  those  South  African  huts 
where  you  must  creep  like  an  animal  to  get  in, 
remember  that  you  cannot  speak  in  His  name 
but  you  will  speak  in  His  ear."  * 

*  Address  of  Dr.  N  Adams :  Bib.  Sac.  vol.  ii.  p.  709, 


FORBIDS    FEAR   OF    MAN.  1 85 

Gentlemen  :  this  was  not  said  with  reference 
especially,  to  sermons  preached  without  a  manu- 
script. The  speaker  himself  has  always,  I  be- 
lieve, written  his  sermons,  and  has  done  it  with 
admirable  care  and  skill.  But  what  he  says  ap- 
plies with,  if  possible,  a  more  peremptory  force  to 
those  who  preach  without  their  notes. 

Every  minister  who  does  this  should  remember 
the  impressive  and  powerful  truth  which  these 
words  convey.  The  thought  of  the  presence  of 
Christ  beside  him  will  absolutely  expel  from  his 
mind  all  fear  of  man.  He  will  be  undaunted 
before  any  criticism,  on  his  manner,  or  looks,  or 
mode  of  speaking,  if  he  feels  that  he  is  so  much 
in  earnest  that  Christ  approves.  It  will  not  limit 
his  individuality.  It  will  not  disturb  the  most 
delicate  and  sensitive  processes  of  his  mind.  It 
will  breed  in  him  no  undue  self  -  distrust. 
Rather,  it  will  invigorate  and  quicken  each  power, 
and  make  him  more  natura',  and  more  self- 
possessed.  For  God  has  created  every  power 
which  we  have ;  has  created  them  for  His  service; 


1 86       PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

and  the  Master  recognizes  every  such  power,  and 
bestows  upon  it  His  benediction,  if  it  be  used  in 
loyalty  to  Him.  He  does  not  disparage  it ;  and 
we  shall  not,  if  we  sympathize  with  Him. 

There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  make  ourselves 
like  others,  or  to  gain  for  ourselves  a  special 
faculty  which  others  have,  while  we  have  not. 
This  very  variety  is  in  God's  plan;  and  to  try 
to  make  one  man  like  another,  in  the  pulpit  or 
out  of  it,  is  to  contravene  His  design.  You  might 
is  well  try  to  make  a  rose  resemble  in  petals  a 
:alla-lily ;  or  to  make  a  nightingale,  with  its 
plaintive  note,  whistle  military  airs  like  a  trained 
bullfinch.  God  gives  to  one  a  doctrine,  to  another 
a  song ;  to  one  the  word  of  wisdom,  to  another 
the  word  of  knowledge  ;  to  another  prophecy  ; 
to  another  divers  kinds  of  tongues  ;  to  another 
the  interpretation  of  tongues  ;  —  and  we  are  sim- 
ply to  hold  and  use,  as  sacred  to  Him,  whatever 
power  we  possess.  He  had  a  use,  and  a  great  one, 
for  the  rugged,  self-willed,  impatient  Peter,  as 
well  as  for  the  sensitive  John ;  for  Luke,  with 


PREVENTS   A   SECULAR   SPIRIT.  1 87 

his  delicate  skill  in  narration,  as  well  as  for  Paul, 
with  his  immense  dialectical  force.  He  has  offices 
and  services  for  each  of  us.  What  He  wants  is 
that  we  use,  to  the  utmost  limit,  every  power  we 
possess,  which  He  has  given,  which  we  have  gladly 
consecrated  to  Him.  A  sense  of  His  personal 
presence  with  us  will,  therefore,  but  make  us 
more  wholly  natural,  self-revealing.  It  will  be 
like  the  influence  of  the  sun  on  the  earth,  bring- 
ing forth  the  retiring  flowers  and  grasses,  and 
crowning  with  blossoms  all  the  trees.  Whatever 
of  force,  whatever  of  beauty,  there  is  in  our 
minds,  will  come  by  means  of  it  into  more  effect- 
ive and  noble  exercise 

It  will  keep  us  from  being  secularized  in 
spirit.  When  not  absorbed  in  the  high  and  vast 
subjects  which  the  Gospel  presents,  the  mind  is 
apt  to  grow  frigid  and  unfruitful  on  its  spiritual 
side.  It  gets  largely  interested  in  other  things ; 
literary,  social,  political  movements,  scientific  dis- 
cussion, external  reform.  The  richness  of  expe- 
rience will   then   fail   in   its    utterance.      The 


1 88  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

Christian  glow, '  the  consecration  and  the  gleam/ 
will  not  kindle  its  speech.  But  the  sense  of  the 
personal  presence  of  Christ  is  a  constant  cor- 
rective to  such  tendencies.  It  inspires  one  to 
enter  the  secrets  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  speak 
from  a  heart  in  sympathy  with  the  Lord's.  It  will 
make  our  preaching  —  to  adopt  the  distinction 
which  some  have  drawn  between  John's  gospel 
and  those  of  the  Synoptists  —  pneumatic,  not 
somatic  ;  spiritual,  not  external.  And  such  a 
preaching  has  always  a  power  which  the  skilful- 
lest  arrangement  of  arguments  and  of  words 
toils  after  in  vain. 

It  will  inspire  in  us  the  true  enthusiasm  —  the 
'  God  within  us '  —  which  is  like  the  flame  shin- 
ing within  the  transparent  vase,  and  revealing 
itself  through  all  exterior  lines  and  tints.  When 
this  is  kindled,  and  constantly  burns,  in  any  soul, 
it  makes  effort  easy,  success  sure :  it  is  itself  a 
power  for  God,  manifesting  His  glory  through 
all  the  faculties  which  His  Spirit  illumines. 

It  will  make  us  glad,  this   sense  of  Christ's 


GREATNESS    OF    OUR    OFFICE.  1 89 

presence  ;  it  will  make  us  fearless,  ardent,  de- 
voted. It  will  unite  us  in  thought  with  all  who 
have  preceded  us  in  the  work,  preaching  His 
word.  We  shall  see  that  he  is  the  only  true  suc- 
cessor of  the  apostles,  who  brings  the  power  of 
Christ,  as  they  did,  the  Spirit  of  God,  with  His 
promises  and  truths,  to  operate  on  the  immortal 
spirits  for  which  Christ  died.  We  shall  feel  this 
office  the  most  august  and  illustrious  on  earth  ; 
that  no  other  can  be  ever  its  equal  while  time 
continues  ;  that  every  thing  else,  in  society  and 
in  history,  is  but  the  scaffolding  to  it  ;  that  its  re- 
suits  will  still  continue  when  Waterloo  and  Tra- 
falgar are  wholly  forgotten.  There  will  come  to 
us  quickening  inspiration  from  the  thought,  on 
every  side. 

Even  Paul  himself  rejoiced  to  say,  when  no 
man  stood  with  him,  but  all  men  forsook  him : 
•'  Notwithstanding,  the  Lord  stood  with  me,  and 
strengthened  me  ;  that  by  me  the  preaching 
might  be  fully  known,  and  that  all  the  Gentiles 
might  hear."     If  he  needed  this  sense  of  Christ's 


190  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 


presence,  much  more  do  we  !  If  he  attained  it, 
so  may  we.  And  when  we  recognize  it,  with 
an  interior  sweetness  of  certainty,  we  shall  not 
feel  abashed  because  we  have  no  manuscript 
before  us.  To  speak  for  Him  will  be  our  im- 
pulse. No  matter  how  timid,  nervous,  self-diffi- 
dent,  we  are  in  ourselves,  as  we  touch  His  pierced 
and  royal  hand  we  shall  be  instantly  masterful 
and  strong.  We  can  enter,  then,  that  marvellous 
experience  of  a  derived  omnipotence  which  Paul 
had,  with  all  his  humility,  when  he  wrote  to  his 
friends  from  his  prison  at  Rome  :  "  I  can  do  all 
things,  through  Christ  which  strengtheneth 
me!" 

Finally  :  Gentlemen,  Be  perfectly  careless  of 
criticism,  and  expect  success. 

You  will  meet  criticism,  of  course  ;  for  you  are 
going  out  into  communities  filled  with  the  influ- 
ence of  literary  culture  and  intellectual  activity, 
and  in  those  communities  you  are  to  preach. 
There,  indeed,  you  must  learn  to  preach.  You 
are   to   learn  in  the  pulpit.     You  cannot  learn 


LEARNING   TO   PREACH,  I9I 

to  preach  in  the  Seminary,  any  more  than 
you  can  learn  to  swim  by  stretching  your- 
selves upon  this  table.  You  may  imitate  the 
motions ;  but  the  yielding  and  buoyant  element 
beneath,  is  here  quite  wanting.  The  lawyer 
has  to  learn  his  skill  by  practice  in  the  courts  ; 
the  physician  his,  not  in  clinics  or  laboratories, 
but  in  his  actual  ministry  to  patients.  So  you 
must  learn  to  preach  without  notes,  if  you  do  it 
at  all,  in  the  pulpit,  and  nowhere  else.  If  these 
eminent  teachers  shall  have  helped  you  toward 
it,  your  memory  of  them  will  be  sweet  and  last- 
ing. If  any  words  of  mine  shall  be  of  the  least 
assistance  to  you,  I  shall  rejoice  to  have  been 
permitted  to  speak  them.  But  you  must  after 
all  learn  for  yourselves,  and  learn  by  practice. 

And  in  this  you  will  suffer  under  some  disad- 
vantages. You  will  come  into  comparison  with 
other,  older,  perhaps  abler  men,  who  have  won 
already  facility  by  practice ;  who  have,  very 
likely,  special  gifts  which  you  have  not,  while 
you  may  have  gifts  which  are  not  theirs.     You 


192      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

will  come  into  comparison,  not  with  ministers 
only,  but  with  lawyers,  and  lecturers  —  many  of 
them  of  engaging  and  eminent  parts,  who  have 
trained  themselves  to  speak,  by  incessant  endeav- 
or, and  with  consummate  success.  You  cannot 
expect  to  secure  the  same  literary  completeness 
and  finish,  in  a  spoken  sermon,  which  you  might 
have  gained  in  one  that  was  written.  A  spoken 
sermon  is  like  a  rapid  and  vivid  sketch,  rather 
than  like  a  finished  picture :  vigorous  in  outline, 
strong  in  coloring,  with  life  in  its  parts,  but 
wanting  extreme  minuteness  of  execution  in 
subordinate  details.  If  you  want  that,  and  are 
determined  to  have  it  —  if  you  must  have  every 
period  '  round  as  Giotto's  O,*  if  you  cannot  be 
satisfied  without  the  ivory  finish  of  Carlo  Dolci, 
or  the  microscopic  exactness  of  Denner's  por- 
traits in  the  Vienna  Belvedere,  where  each 
wrinkle  and  hair,  one  might  almost  say  each 
pore  of  the  skin,  is  presented  on  the  canvas  — 
then,  assuredly,  write  your  sermons.  You  cannot 
gain  otherwise  what  you  want.     At  least  I  do 


ACCEPTANCE  BY  THE  PEOPLE.      I 93 

not  believe  it  possible  to  give  to  a  free  and  spo- 
ken sermon  the  same  elaborateness  and  fineness 
of  finish  which  you  may  to  one  written. 

But  if  you  are  willing  to  preach  correctly, 
truthfully,  energetically,  —  giving  no  special 
thought  to  the  perfection  of  your  finish,  except 
to  get  as  much  of  it  as  you  can,  without  being 
hindered,  and  to  be  careless  of  what  you  lose,  — 
then  speak  without  writing.  Your  people  will 
soon  come  to  accept  it,  and  will  be  stirred  by  it 
as  they  are  not  by  essays.  At  first  they  may 
criticise,  and  compare  your  discourses  with  those 
of  some  one  who  writes  with  elegance  and  felici- 
ty ;  but  after  a  while  they  will  choose  the  utter- 
ance through  which  an  eager  personal  soul  is 
speaking  to  them  its  present  thought. 

I  mean  that  most  of  them  will.  Of  course,  in 
almost  every  congregation,  there  will  be  some, 
like  lago,  who  are  "  nothing,  if  not  critical." 
There  may  be  those,  I  have  known  such  per- 
sons, who  think  themselves  wise  in  exact  pro- 
portion as  they  suspect  defects  in  others,  and 


194      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

whose  chief  criterion  of  their  evangelical  insight 
and  zeal  appears  to  be  the  readiness  and  the 
rashness  of  their  criticism  of  sermons.  You 
must  expect  to  encounter  such  people ;  and 
sometimes,  no  doubt,  especially  in  your  earlier 
years,  their  criticism  will  cut  you  till  it  hurts. 

But  remember  this  :  that  the  criticism  is  often 
itself  wrong  and  unreasonable,  and  then  you 
may  laugh  at  it.  So  it  is  everywhere.  Hear 
the  criticisms  made  in  a  great  gallery  of  pic- 
tures, by  those  who  are  walking  through  it :  the 
preference  of  one  for  some  modern  garish 
French  interior,  over  the  tender  and  harmonious 
beauty  of  Correggio's  Holy  Night ;  of  another 
for  the  crude  flash  and  glitter  of  a  recent  land- 
scape, over  the  sweet  and  sunny  splendor  of 
Claude  Lorraine.  Half  the  criticism  you  hear, 
and  nearly  all  the  praise,  will  be  like  this ;  in- 
trinsically worthless.  Your  ambitious  passages 
may  elicit  an  applause  which  it  were  folly  to 
heed ;  while  your  best  sermons,  except  by  a 
few,  may  be  quite  disregarded. 


LEARN   FROM   CRITICISM.  1 95 

But  then  remember,  also,  that  the  criticisms 
upon  you  will  sometimes  be  just,  and  such  as 
you  may  heed  with  lasting  advantage.  It  will 
sometimes  be  said  that  '  you  are  too  long,'  —  as 
you  all  are  just  now  saying  about  me  ;  and  you 
will  know  in  yourself  that  it  is  so.  Then  ab- 
breviate, condense  ;  stop,  if  needful,  before  you 
are  through.  'You  use  too  many  words  for 
your  thought ; '  then  compact,  and  compress. 
'  Too  dry  and  logical ; '  then  expand,  and  decorate. 
'  Too  constantly  doctrinal ; '  then  preach  the 
evangelical  practice,  till  they  want  the  whole 
circle  of  the  doctrines  of  grace  to  inspire  them 
to  attempt  it.  Get  hints  and  lessons  from  the 
sharpest  criticism,  and  strive  to  correct  what  it 
indicates  as  faults.  You  will  often  learn  most 
and  best  in  this  way,  while  it  will  utterly  fail  to 
disturb  you ;  for  if  your  mind  is  wholly  fixed  on 
bringing  the  water  of  life  to  your  people,  you 
will  not  much  care,  except  for  their  sakes, 
whether  you  offer  it  in  a  pewter  mug  or  in  a 
silver  chalice. 


196      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 

After  that,  criticism  may  often  help,  but  it 
never  can  hurt  you. 

Be  sure,  when  it  comes,  that  you  take  it  like  a 
man,  and  are  never  overcome  by  it.  Remember 
what  Sheridan  said,  when  he  came  out  from  the 
House  of  Commons,  after  they  had  hissed  him  : 
"  It's  in  me,  and  [with  an  oath]  it  shall  come 
out."  Omit  the  oath,  but  make  the  vow.  If  it 
is  in  you,  and  you  know  it  —  the  conviction  of 
the  truth,  and  the  power  to  express  it  —  deter- 
mine that  it  shall  at  last  come  out.  And  let  the 
adverse  breath  of  criticism  be  to  you  only  what 
the  blast  of  the  storm-wind  is  to  the  eagle  :  a 
force  against  him,  that  lifts  him  higher. 

Remember  that  ere  long  the  criticism  will 
have  wholly  passed  away,  except  in  the  result 
which  it  leaves  upon  your  mind,  and  in  the 
effect  which  it  has  upon  your  preaching.  As  your 
people  become  accustomed  to  your  manner ;  as 
they  recognize  your  sincerity,  and  the  earnest- 
ness of  your  work ;  as  they  see  in  your  sermons 
the  fruit  of  study,  and  feel  that  you  come  to 


LIBERTY   AT   LAST.  I97 

them  from  communion  with  God ;  as  you  get 
a  firm  and  vital  hold  on  some  among  them,  by 
meeting  their  difficulties,  cheering  their  hearts, 
bracing  their  wills  to  a  hardier  effort,  lifting 
them  up  to  the  serener  air,  —  they  will  no  more 
think  of  any  criticism.  You  will  enter  into  the 
liberty  you  have  won.  Your  pulpit  will  be  to 
you  a  home  and  a  throne.  You  will  become 
your  own  legislator,  as  to  forms  and  modes,  in 
subordination  only  and  always  to  Him  for  whom 
you  speak  to  men.  And  when  you  come  to  that 
experience  you  will  often  find  that  it  was  the 
very  criticism  which  stung  which  brought  you 
to  it,  and  that  what  has  now  been  utterly  for- 
gotten by  those  who  made  it,  remains  with  you, 
in  your  greater  facility,  and  your  continually 
augmenting  power.  So  be  not  dismayed  by 
any  criticism  ;  but  forget  it  if  unjust,  and  reap 
from  it,  if  just,  whatever  of  personal  benefit  you 
can. 

And   always,  Gentlemen,  expect   success.     I 
do  not  mean  for  yourselves,  specially,  in  the  way 


198  PREACHING    WITHOUT    NOTES. 

of  fame,  personal  distinction,  lucrative  appoint- 
ments. These  may  come,  or  they  may  not.  It 
is  a  matter  of  little  consequence.  Remember 
the  words  of  Thackeray,  that  sad  and  sombre 
^^umorist :  "What  boots  it  whether  it  be  West- 
minster or  a  little  country  spire  which  covers 
your  ashes ;  or  if  a  few  days  sooner  or  later  the 
world  forgets  you  ?  "  *  Above  all  others,  the 
minister  should  remember  the  profound  and 
secular  wisdom  there  is  in  those  words  of  the 
Master  :  "  For  whosoever  will  save  his  life  shall 
lose  it ;  but  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life,  for  My 
sake,  and  the  Gospel's,  the  same  shall  save  it." 
Influence  comes  to  self-forgetfulness.  Honor 
and  power  have  consecration  for  their  condition. 
And  you  will  find  that  the  more  careless  you  are 
of  the  things  which  the  world  esteems  success, 
the  more  likely  you  are,  if  not  to  reap  it,  cer- 
tainly to  reach  the  best  results  which  it  could 
have  given,  in  your  experience  of  happiness 
and  of  usefulness. 

*  Pendennis,  voL  L  p.  203. 


POWER   OF   THE    GOSPEL.  1 99 

But  expect  success  in  your  work  for  Christ. 
You  have  a  right  to  rely  upon  that ;  and  you 
need  the  strength  which  the  foresight  of  it 
gives.  The  suspension-bridge  must  be  anchored 
at  both  ends,  if  one  would  make  it  steadfast  and 
strong.  Men's  souls  require  to  be  equally  braced. 
You  must  not  only  have  an  impulse  to  work, 
but  the  sure  expectation  of  success  in  the 
work,  —  your  mind  and  spirit  must  be  poised 
upon  both,  —  if  you  would  be  so  tranquil  in  mind 
before  your  people  that  trains  of  thought  shall 
pass  incessantly  on  your  words,  without  one  pain- 
ful pause  or  jar.  You  have  a  right  to  expect 
such  success.  The  truth  of  God,  which  is  put 
into  your  hands,  is  the  power  of  God  to  men's 
salvation  ;  and  never  was  its  power  more  plainly 
exhibited  than  in  our  own  time.  The  harlots 
and  the  dock-thieves  along  our  own  wharves, 
converted  to  God,  now  praising  Him  whom  once 
they  cursed,  and  working  for  men  whom  once 
they  wrecked,  —  there  have  been  no  greater  tri- 
umphs of  the  Gospel  since  Christendom  began, 


200  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

And  this  is  the  instrument  which  you  have  to 
use,  sovereign  and  swift,  the  very  sword  of  the 
Spirit. 

Your  success  may  not  come  at  the  precise 
time  when  you  expect  it,  or  in  the  way  which 
you  anticipate.  It  may  not  come  so  that  you 
yourselves  shall  see  it  on  earth.  The  Master 
seemed  to  men  to  have  realized  but  small  suc- 
cess, in  His  sublime  mission :  twelve  Apostles, 
and  one  of  them  a  traitor ;  of  all  the  multitudes 
who  had  heard  His  words.  His  final  following 
very  small.  Paul,  the  greatest  of  human 
preachers,  did  not  appear  to  achieve  large  suc- 
cess :  a  few  scattered  and  small  congregations, 
in  the  various  Greek  cities,  with  error,  impurity, 
dissension  among  them,  the  old  Paganism  still  in 
part  poisoning  their  life.  But  out  of  his  labors, 
and  those  of  his  companions,  Christendom  has 
come.  Out  of  the  work  of  each  faithful  minis- 
ter come  consequences  of  good,  immense  if  un- 
seen. Out  of  the  labor,  and  sacrifice,  and 
patience,  of   multitudes   of    faithful   saints   and 


HASTENING   MILLENNIUM.  20I 

teachers,  whose  very  names  we  do  not  know, 
has  come  our  Christian  civilization. 

Success  is  certain,  in  the  end.  Then  seize  it 
with  your  hope  beforehand.  Remember  that 
while  you  are  working  Millennium  draws  nearer  ; 
and  that  it  is  your  privilege  to  hasten  its  com- 
ing. "  Hasting  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God  ; " 
not  hasting  to  it.  I  trust  our  Revisers  will  leave 
out  the  "  unto  : "  there  is  no  £<V  before  the  napm- 
aiav.  Not  suicide,  but  success,  is  what  the 
apostle  would  have  us  seek. 

And  even  if  success  does  not  appear  now,  or 
ever  on  earth,  it  will  surely  come  in  the  Beyond. 
More  than  once,  as  I  have  stood  by  the  grave  of 
a  young  minister,  dead  in  his  prime,  —  as  I  have 
bowed,  amazed  and  baffled,  before  that  event 
which  seems  to  contradict  all  economies  of  God's 
universe,  and  to  make  the  cultured  power,  the 
garnered  knowledge,  the  vivifying  spirit,  of  no 
avail,  —  I  have  remembered  words  in  the  same 
Address  from  which  I  have  already  quoted,  two  or 
three  sentences  of  which  you  will  let  me  read  : — 


202  PREACHING   WITHOUT   NOTES. 

"  We  may  remember  that  this  life  may  not  be 
the  only  term  of  service  in  which  God  may  use 
us  to  influence  others  by  the  communication  of 
our  thoughts  and  feelings.  It  cannot  be  that 
eloquent  communication  from  mind  to  mind  is 
limited  to  earth.  .  .  .  From  your  lips,  if  thev 
have  dwelt  with  peculiar  love  and  power  on  the 
doctrines  of  the  cross,  may  the  inhabitants  of 
other  worlds  learn  things  yet  imperfectly  under- 
stood by  them  in  the  history  of  Redemption.  It 
may  be  that  you  will  then  be  called  of  God  to 
be  employed  in  wondrous  acts  of  ministry  to 
other  worlds,  because  He  can  say  of  you,  in  re- 
membrance of  your  earthly  attainments  and 
service,  *  I  know  that  he  can  speak  well.'  "  * 

Young  Gentlemen :  in  all  your  life  remember 
this !  Let  it  lift  and  delight  you !  Cherish  each 
force,  and  discipline  every  noblest  power,  under 
its  inspiration  !  Let  all  work  take  a  lustre  from 
it !  And  expect  the  time  when  the  Son  of  Man, 
no  more  invisible,  shall  be  revealed ;  and  when  by 

*  Address  ot  Dr.  N.  Adams ;  Bib.  Sac  vol.  ii.  p.  7 19. 


RESULTS    OF   THE    METHOD.  203 

Him  shall  be  opened  to  you,  if  here  you  have  been 
His  earnest  servants,  that  grand  and  bright  ex- 
panse of  Heaven  in  which  may  He  say  to  all  of 
us :  '  On  earth  ye  have  been  the  rulers  over  a  few 
things ;  a  few  faculties,  a  few  knowledges,  a 
few  opportunities  :  Lo,  I  will  make  you  rulers 
over  many  things,  in  this  kingdom  of  my 
Father ! '  * 

Gentlemen :  I  feel,  very  keenly,  that  in  what  I 
have  said,  I  have  been  but  giving  you  a  catalogue 
of  my  conscious  deficiencies.  I  have  not  stated 
a  principle,  or  laid  down  a  precept,  that  does  not 
now  come  back  to  me,  as  I  think  of  it,  with  an 
edge  of  rebuke.  But  no  matter.  These  are  the 
points  where  you  need  to  be  strong  that  you 
may  preach,  with  real  success,  without  writing 
your  sermons.  If  you  are  willing  to  do  the 
work,  I  think  you  will  be  well  repaid.  You  will 
rescue  more  time,  fc-r  larger  studies.  The  frag- 
ments and  bits  of  fractured  days  will  become 
more  available.  A  certain  amount  of  nervous 
•  Note  XXVIH. 


204      PREACHING  WITHOUT  NOTES. 


waste,  in  desk  and  pen-work,  will  be  spared. 
You  will  find  the  mind  fruitful,  or  even  luxuri- 
ant, at  times  when  it  otherwise  would  lie  fallow 
and  sterile.  You  will  reach  at  times  a  height 
of  conviction,  an  intensity  of  feeling,  a  suprem- 
acy of  vision,  which  you  cannot  attain  except 
the  animation  of  the  assembly  be  around  you. 
I  think  you  will  have  a  more  intimate  sense  of 
the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  within  you, 
and  of  the  Christ  who  stands  beside  you. 

But  if  you  undertake  the  work,  remember 
that  you  are  to  give  to  it  time,  labor,  patience, 
prayer,  invincible  resolution  ;  and  are  not  to  give 
it  up  until  you  have  reached  all  that  success 
which,  within  the  limitations  of  nature  and  of 
grace,  is  possible  for  you.  Do  it,  not  in  indo- 
lence, and  not  in  ambition.  Do  it,  as  an  offering 
to  the  Master,  in  the  spirit  of  perfect  consecra- 
tion to  Him  !  Do  it,  as  David  did  his  office,  when 
Araunah  offered  him  the  threshing-floor,  and  the 
wood,  and  the  oxen  for  his  sacrifice,  and  he  said : 
"  I  will  not  offer  unto  the  Lord  my  God  of  that 


CLOSE   OF   LECTURES.  205 

which  doth  cost  me  nothing."  Do  it,  in  the  spirit 
of  Paul,  when  he  wrote  to  the  Philippian  Chris- 
tians :  "  If  I  be  offered  —  my  very  life  poured 
out  as  a  libation  —  upon  the  sacrifice  and  service 
of  your  faith,  I  joy,  and  rejoice  with  you  all." 

And  so  may  God  accept  and  bless  you  in  all 
your  ministry,  and  take  you  at  its  end  to  His 
own  presence ! 


APPENDIX. 


207 


APPENDIX. 


A  FEW  notes  have  been  hastily  added  to 
the  foregoing  lectures,  containing,  chiefly,  brief 
passages  from  great  writers,  which  illustrate  or 
emphasize  certain  points  in  the  text.  If  leisure 
had  permitted,  these  might  of  course  have  been 
many  times  multiplied.  Only  those  are  now 
given  which  have  chanced  to  be  brought  to  dis- 
tinct remembrance,  in  reviewing  the  general 
course  of  thought,  or  in  reading  the  proof-sheets. 

If  these  richly-woven  words  of  the  masters  of 

sentences  shall   seem  to  hang  on  the  lectures 

which  precede  them  like  tassels  of  gold  upon  a 

common  fabric,  it  is  hoped,  nevertheless,  that 

they  may  in  part  redeem  the  poverty  which  they 

cannot  disguise,  but   must,  undoubtedly,  make 

more  apparent. 

309 


210  APPENDIX. 


Note  I.    Page  40. 

"  Every  sermon  costs  me  as  much  time  and  labor  to 
write  as  to  furnish  the  matter  and  subsequent  corrections 
for  six  or  seven.  And  I  have  more  business  to  occupy 
my  time  and  thoughts  than  you  probably  suppose. 
When  you  see  me  lounging  about  the  garden,  and  prun- 
ing a  rose-bush,  you  probably  suppose  that  I  am  thinking 
of  nothing  else  ;  when,  perhaps,  I  am  deliberating  on 
some  weighty  matter,  on  which  I  have  to  decide."  —  Letter 
ofAbp.  Whately:  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  226. 

Note  II.    Page  46. 

Macaulay  has  pictured  two  different  masters 
of  the  English  language,  in  passages  of  his 
Essays  which  may  be  usefully  read  together  :  — 

"  His  [Dryden's]  command  of  language  was  immense. 
With  him  died  the  secret  of  the  old  poetical  diction  of 
England,  —  the  art  of  producing  rich  effects  by  familiar 
words.  ...  On  the  other  hard,  he  was  the  first  writer 
under  whose  skilful  management  the  scientific  vocabulary 
fell  into  natural  and  pleasing  verse.     In  this  department 


APPENDIX.  211 


he  succeeded  as  completely  as  his  contemporary  Gibbons 
succeeded  in  the  similar  enterprise  of  carving  the  most 
delicate  flowers  from  heart  of  oak.  The  toughest  and 
most  knotty  parts  of  language  became  ductile  at  his 
touch."  —  Essay,  on  Drydeti. 

"  The  style  of  Bunyan  is  delightful  to  every  reader,  and 
invaluable  as  a  study  to  every  person  who  wishes  to 
obtain  a  wide  command  over  the  EngHsh  language.  The 
vocabulary  is  the  vocabulary  of  the  common  people. 
There  is  not  an  expression,  if  we  except  a  few  technical 
terms  of  theology,  which  would  puzzle  the  rudest  peas- 
ant. .  .  Yet  no  writer  has  said  more  exactly  what  he 
meant  to  say.  For  magnificence,  for  pathos,  for  vehe- 
ment exhortation,  for  subtle  disquisition,  for  every  pur- 
pose of  the  poet,  the  orator,  and  the  divine,  this  homely 
dialect,  the  dialect  of  plain  working  men,  was  perfectly 
suflScient."  —  Essay y  on  Pilgrim's  Progress. 


Note  III.    Page  47. 

From  the  multitude  of  illustrations  in  Shak- 
speare  of  his  keen  sense  of  the  strength  or  the 
music  of  words,  two  may  be  taken  the  contrast 
between  them  emphasizing  each  :  — 


212  APPENDIX. 


"  I  stood  like  a  man  at  a  mark,  with  a  whole  army 
shooting  at  me  :  she  speaks  poniards,  and  every  word 
stabs."  —  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  act  ii.  sc.  i. 

"  His  eye  begets  occasion  for  his  wit : 
For  every  object  that  the  one  doth  catch, 
The  other  turns  to  a  mirth-moving  jest ; 
Which  his  fair  tongue,  conceit's  expositor, 
Delivers  in  such  apt  and  gracious  words, 
That  aged  ears  play  truant  at  his  tales, 
And  younger  hearings  are  quite  ravished. 
So  sweet  and  voluble  is  his  discourse." 

Lovis  Labor's  Lost,  act  ii.  sc.  I 

Note  IV.    Page  47. 

"  It  was  the  Arcadia  [of  Sidney]  which  first  taught 
to  the  contemporary  writers  that  inimitable  interweaving 
and  contexture  of  words,  that  bold  and  unshackled  use 
and  application  of  them,  —  that  art  of  giving  to  language, 
appropriated  to  objects  the  most  common  and  trivial,  a 
kind  of  acquired  and  adventitious  loftiness,  and  to  diction 
in  itself  noble  and  elevated  a  sort  of  super-added  dignity, 
—  that  power  of  ennobling  the  sentiments  by  the  lan- 
guage and  the  language  by  the  sentiments,  —  which  so 


APPENDIX.  213 

often  excites  our  admiration  in  perusing  the  writers  of  the 
age  of  Elizabeth."  —  Retrospective  Review ;  quoted  by 
Hallam:  Lit.  Hist,  of  Europe,  part  2,  chap.  vii. 


Note  V.    Page  49. 

"  The  collocation  of  words  is  so  artificial  in  Shakspeare 
and  Milton,  that  you  may  as  well  think  of  pushing  a  brick 
out  of  a  wall  with  your  fore-finger,  as  attempt  to  remove 
a  word  out  of  any  of  their  finished  passages."  —  Cole- 
ridge s  Table  Talk,  July  3,  1833. 

Perhaps  as  fair  an  account  as  can  be  given  of 
some  of  Coleridge's  own  sentences  is  contained 
in  this  later  remark  of  his  about  Shakspeare  :  — 

"  Shakspeare's  intellectual  action  is  wholly  unlike  that 
of  Ben  Jonson,  or  Beaumont  and  Fletcher.  The  latter 
see  the  totality  of  a  sentence  or  passage,  and  then  project 
it  entire.  Shakspeare  goes  on  creating,  and  evolving  B. 
out  of  A.,  and  C.  out  of  B.,  and  so  on,  just  as  a  serpent 
moves,  which  makes  a  fulcrum  of  its  own  body,  and 
seems  forever  twisting  and  untwisting  its  own  strength." 
—  Table  Talk,  March  5,  1834. 


214  APPENDIX. 

Note  VI.    Page  52. 

"Stylus  optimus  et  praestantissimus  dicendi  effector  ac 
magister ;  neque  injuria.  Nam  si  subitam  et  fortuitam  ora » 
tionem  commentatio  et  cogitatio  facile  vincit ;  banc  ipsam 
profecto  assidua  ac  diligens  scriptura  superabit.  Omnes 
enim,  sive  artis  sunt  loci,  sive  ingenii  cujusdam  atque 
prudentiae,  qui  modo  insunt  in  ea  re,  de  qua  scribimus, 
anquirentibus  nobis,  omnique  acie  ingenii  contemplanti- 
bus  ostendunt  se  et  occurrunt ;  omnesque  sententiae, 
verbaque  omnia,  quae  sunt  cujusque  generis  maxime  il- 
lustria,  sub  acumen  styli  subeant  et  succedant  necesse 
est ;  tum  ipsa  collocatio  conformatioque  verborum  per- 
ficitur  in  scribendo,  non  poetico,  sed  quodam  oratorio 
numero  et  modo."  —  Cicero  :  De  Oratore,  lib.  I,  cap. 
xxxiii. 

How  vividly  the  effect  of  careful  and  habitual 
writing  upon  unwritten  speech,  in  imparting  to 
it  the  law  of  its  own  movement,  is  illustrated 
in  the  well-known  figure  which  closes  the  same 
chapter : — 

"Ut  concitato  navigio,  quunv  remiges  inhibuerunt. 
retinet  tamen  ipsa  navis  motum  et  cursum  suum,  inter- 


APPENDIX.  215 


misso  impetu  pulsuque  remorum :  sic  in  oratione  per- 
petua,  quum  scripta  deficiunt,  parem  tamen  obtinet 
oratio  reliqua  cursum,  scriptorum  similtiudine  et  vi  con- 
citata." 

Note  VII.    Page  63. 

"  It's  a  great  mistake  to  think  any  thing  too  profound 
or  rich  for  a  popular  audience.  No  train  of  thought  is 
too  deep,  or  subtle,  or  grand  —  but  the  manner  of  present- 
ing it  to  their  untutored  minds  should  be  peculiar.  It 
should  be  presented  in  anecdote,  or  sparkling  truism,  or 
telling  illustration,  or  stinging  epithet ;  always  in  some 
concrete  form,  never  in  a  logical,  abstract,  syllogistic 
shape."  —  Choate  :  Parker's  Reminiscences,  p.  261. 


Note  VIII.    Page  66. 

"  Be  a  man's  vocation  what  it  may,  his  rule  should  be 
to  do  its  duties  perfectly,  to  do  the  best  he  can,  and  thus 
to  make  perpetual  progress  in  his  art.  In  other  words, 
Perfection  should  be  proposed.  .  .  . 

"  Difficulty  is  the  element,  and  resistance  the  true 
work,  of  a  man."  —  Channing  :  vol.  ii.  p.  385. 


2l6  APPENDIX. 


Note  IX.    Page  76. 

"Our  ideas  are  so  infinitely  enlarged  by  Revelation, 
the  eye  of  reason  has  so  wide  a  prospect  into  Eternity, 
the  notions  of  a  Deity  are  so  worthy  and  refined,  and  the 
accounts  we  have  of  a  state  of  happiness  or  misery  so 
clear  and  evident,  that  the  contemplation  of  such  objects 
will  give  our  discourse  a  noble  vigor,  an  invincible  force, 
beyond  the  power  of  any  human  consideration." — The 
Spectator,  No.  633. 

Note  X.    Page  80. 

"  When  the  sermon  is  good  we  need  not  much  concern 
ourselves  about  the  form  of  the  pulpit.  But  sermons 
cannot  always  be  good  ;  and  I  believe  that  the  temper  in 
which  the  congregation  set  themselves  to  listen  may  be 
in  some  degree  modified  by  their  perception  of  fitness  or 
unfitness,  impressiveness  or  vulgarity,  in  the  disposition 
of  the  place  appointed  for  the  speaker,  —  not  to  the  same 
degree,  but  somewhat  in  the  same  way,  that  they  may  be 
influenced  by  his  own  gestures  or  expression,  irrespect- 
ive of  the  sense  of  what  he  says.  .  .  .  But  if  once  we 
begin  to  regard  the  preacher,  whatever  his  faults,  as  a 
man  sent  with  a  message  to  us,  which  it  is  a  matter  el 


APPENDIX.  217 


life  or  death  whether  we  hear  or  refuse,  ...  we  shall 
look  with  changed  eyes  upon  that  frippery  of  gay  furni- 
ture about  the  place  from  which  the  message  of  judgment 
must  be  delivered,  which  either  breathes  upon  the  dry 
bones  that  they  may  live,  or,  if  ineffectual,  remains  re- 
corded in  condemnation,  perhaps  against  the  utterer  and 
listener  alike,  but  assuredly  against  one  of  them.  We 
shall  not  so  easily  bear  with  the  silk  and  gold  upon  the 
seat  of  judgment,  nor  with  ornament  of  oratory  in  the 
mouth  of  the  messenger :  we  shall  wish  that  his  words 
may  be  simple,  even  when  they  are  sweetest,  and  the 
place  from  which  he  speaks  like  a  marble  rock  in  the 
desert,  about  which  the  people  have  gathered  in  their 
thirst."  —  RusKiN :    Stones  of  Venice,  vol.  ii.,  chap,  ii., 

§§  13,  H- 

"  The  successive  pulpits  of  the  Abbey,  if  not  equally 
expressive  of  the  changes  which  it  has  witnessed, 
carry  on  the  sound  of  many  voices,  heard  with  delight 
and  wonder  in  their  time.  No  vestige  remains  of  the  old 
mediaeval  platform  whence  the  Abbots  urged  the  reluc- 
tant Court  of  Henry  III.  to  the  Crusades.  But  we  have 
still  the  fragile  structure  from  which  Cranmer  must  have 
preached  at  the  coronation  and  funeral  of  his  royal  god- 
son ;  and  the  more  elaborate  carving  of  that  which  re- 
sounded with  the  passionate  appeals,  at  one   time  of 


2l8  APPENDIX. 


Baxter,  Howe,  and  Owen,  at  other  times  of  Heylin, 
Williams,  South,  and  Barrow.  .  .  .  The  marble  pulpit 
in  the  nave,  given  in  1859  to  commemorate  the  beginning 
of  the  Special  Services  through  which  Westminster  led 
the  way  in  re-animating  the  silent  naves  of  our  cathe- 
drals, has  thus  been  been  the  chief  vehicle  of  the  varied 
teaching  of  those  who  have  been  well  called  *  the  Peo- 
ple's preachers  :  '  '  vox  quidem  dissona,  sed  una  religio.' 
—  Stanley  :  Memorials  of  West.  Abbey,  ch.  vi.  p.  551. 


Note  XI.    Page  93. 

"  The  sun,  which  we  want,  ripens  wits,  as  well  as 
fruits." —  Milton  :  Hist,  of  Britain,  book  iii. 

"  To  be  free-minded,  and  cheerfully  disposed,  at  hours 
of  meat  and  of  sleep  and  of  exercise,  is  one  of  the  best 
precepte  of  long  lasting."  —  Bacon's  Essays,  xxx. 

"  Happily  for  my  eyes,  I  have  always  closed  my 
studies  with  the  day,  and  commonly  with  the  morning ; 
and  a  long,  but  temperate,  labor  has  been  accomplished, 
without  fatiguing  either  the  mind  or  body."  —  Gibbon's 
Memoirs,  p.  117. 


APPENDIX.  219 


Ndte  XII,    Page  96. 

"The  most  wearisome  details  of  questions,  now  this 
long  while  settled  and  forgotten,  receive  a  suffusion  of 
interest  and  color  from  the  constant  play  around  them 
of  wide  and  rich  human  wisdom.  Whatever  he  handled 
...  all  was  treated  with  that  nobility  of  idea  and  expres- 
sion which  mere  talent  is  invariably  the  better  for  study- 
ing, but  which  is  only  inborn,  familiar,  and  perfect,  in 
a  few  men  of  fine  genius  and  deep  morality  of  nature. 
Passion  left  flaws  to  offend  a  fastidious  taste,  and  too 
frequently  marked  his  gravity  with  exaggeration,  and 
his  humor  with  clumsiness.  But  these  were  mainly 
accidents  of  atmosphere.  Notwithstanding  them,  we  look 
in  vain  elsewhere  in  the  history  of  English  politics  for 
the  illumination  of  such  questions  as  those  before  us, 
by  such  amplitude  of  knowledge,  united  to  so  much 
comprehension,  force,  and  elevation."  —  Morley  :  Study 
0/  Edmund  Burke,  p.  167. 

"  His  wonderful  ability  for  comprehending  and  reason- 
ing, his  quickness  of  apprehension,  his  faculty  for 
analyzing  a  subject  to  its  elements,  for  seizing  on  the 
essential  points,  for  going  back  to  principles  and  forward 


220  APPENDIX. 


to  consequences,  and  for  bringing  out  into  an  intelligi- 
ble and  sometimes  very  obvious  form  what  appeared 
obscure  or  perplexed,  remained  unaltered  to  the  last 
This  noble  intellect,  thus  seen  with  a  diminished  lustre 
of  imagination,  suggested  the  idea  of  a  lofty  eminence, 
raising  its  form  and  summit  clear  and  bare  towards  the 
sky,  losing  nothing  of  its  imposing  aspect  by  absence 
of  the  wreaths  of  tinctured  clouds,  which  may  have  in- 
vested it  at  another  season.  ...  He  was  eminently 
successful  on  subjects  of  an  elevated  order,  which  he 
would  expand  and  illustrate  in  a  manner  which  sustained 
them  to  the  high  level  of  their  dignity.  This  carried  him 
near  some  point  of  the  border  of  that  awful  darkness 
which  encompasses,  on  all  sides,  our  little  glimmering 
field  of  knowledge  ;  and  then  it  might  be  seen  how  aware 
he  was  of  his  approach,  how  cautiously,  or  shall  I  say 
instinctively,  he  was  held  aloof,  how  sure  not  to  abandon 
the  ground  of  evidence,  by  a  hazardous  incursion  of 
conjecture  or  imagination  into  the  unknown.  He  would 
indicate  how  near,  and  in  what  direction,  lay  the  shaded 
frontier ;  but  dared  not,  did  not  seem  even  tempted,  to 
invade  its  '  majesty  of  darkness.'  "  —  John  Foster  ; 
Observations  on  Robert  Hall. 


APPENDIX.  221 


Note  XIII.    Page  ioo. 

"  Yoa  have  letters,  but  no  learning,  that  understand  so 
many  languages,  turn  over  so  many  volumes,  and  yet  are 
but  asleep  when  all  is  done."  —  Milton,  to  Salmasius. 

Note  XIV.    Page  103. 

"  I  call,  therefore,  a  complete  and  generous  education 
that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform,  justly,  liberally,  and 
magnanimously,  all  the  offices,  both  private  and  public, 
of  peace  and  war."  —  Milton,  on  Education. 

Note  XV.    Page  106. 

"  Great  scholar  he  was  none,  the  Latin  Testament, 
gotten  by  heart,  being  the  master-piece  of  his  learning  ; 
nor  any  studied  lawyer,  never  long  living,  if  admitted,  in 
the  Inns  of  Court ;  nor  experienced  soldier,  though  neces- 
sity cast  him  on  that  calling  when  the  Duke  of  Bourbon 
besieged  Rome  ;  nor  courtier  in  his  youth,  till  bred  in  the 
Court,  as  I  may  call  it,  of  Cardinal  Wolsey  :  and  yet,  that 
of  the  lawyer  in  him  so  helped  the  scholar,  that  of  the 
soldier  the  lawyer,  that  of  the  courtier  the  soldier,  and  that 


222  APPENDIX. 


9f  the  traveller  so  perfected  all  the  rest, — being  no 
stranger  to  Germany,  well  acquainted  with  France,  most 
familiar  with  Italy  —  that  the  result  of  all  together  made 
him  for  endowments  eminent,  not  to  say  admirable."  — 
Thomas  Fuller  :  on  Cromwell,  Earl  of  Essex.  Church 
Hist,  of  Britain,  cent.  i6,  book  v. 

Note  XVI.    Page  io8. 

"  Of  eloquence  it  has  been  eloquently  said :  *  Eloquen- 
tia  sicut  flamma,  materie  alitur,  motu  excitatur,  urendo 
clarescit.'  Mr.  Pitt  thus  happily  rendered  the  passage : 
'  It  is  of  eloquence  as  of  a  flame :  it  requires  matter  to 
feed  it,  motion  to  excite  it,  and  it  brightens  as  it  burns.' " 
—  Preface  to  Lord  Russell's  Life  of  Charles  y antes  Fox. 

Note  XVII.    Page  ii8. 

Yet  there  are  admirable  sermons  to  which  we 
may  almost  apply  Goethe's  words  about  the 
characters  of  Shakspeare,  as  quoted  by  Car- 
lyle:  — 

"His  characters  are  like  watches  with  dial-p.ates  of 
transparent  crystal :  they  show  you  the  hour,  Uke  others, 


APPENDIX.  223 


and  the  inward  mechanism  also  is  all    visible."  —  On 
Heroes,  Led.  3. 

Note  XVIII.    Page  121. 

It  is  hazardous  to  introduce  extended  de- 
scriptions of  natural  scenery  into  sermons,  lest 
the  personal  experience  with  which  they  are 
connected  be  rather  hidden  than  illustrated  by 
them  ;  and  lest  —  as  has  sometimes  happened  — 
the  sermon  itself  shall  seem  to  have  been  con- 
structed with  reference  to  them,  as  if  a  house 
had  been  planned  to  match  a  mantel-piece. 
But,  occasionally,  they  add  to  a  discourse  a 
vivid  and  memorable  moral  force,  as  well  as 
rare  pictorial  beauty. 

The  following  passages  from  a  modern  ser- 
mon illustrate,  perhaps,  both  the  danger  and 
the  gain :  — 

"The  more  you  lose  your  isolated  self,  and  the 
thoughts  and  feelings  which  cluster  round  it,  and  take 
instead  into  you  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  others,  the 


224  APPENDIX. 


richer  and  the  more  varied,  the  more  complex  and  the 
more  interesting,  and  therefore  the  more  vividly  indi- 
vidual, becomes  your  being.  .  .  . 

"  It  was  my  fortune  last  year,  in  going  from  Torcello 
to  Venice,  to  be  overtaken  by  one  of  the  whirlwinds 
which  sometimes  visit  the  south.  It  was  a  dead  calm, 
but  the  whole  sky,  high  overhead,  was  covered  with  a 
pall  of  purple,  sombre  and  smooth,  but  full  of  scarlet 
threads.  Across  this,  from  side  to  side,  as  if  darted  by 
two  invisible  armies,  flew  at  every  instant  flashes  of 
forked  lightning ;  but  so  lofty  was  the  storm  —  and  this 
gave  a  hushed  terror  to  the  scene  —  that  no  thunder  was 
heard.  Beneath  this  sky  the  lagoon  water  was  dead 
purple,  and  the  weedy  shoals  left  naked  by  the  tide 
dead  scarlet.  The  only  motion  in  the  sky  was  far  away 
to  the  south,  where  a  palm-tree  of  pale  mist  seemed  to 
rise  from  the  water,  and  to  join  itself  above  to  a  self- 
infolding  mass  of  seething  cloud.  We  reached  a  small 
island  and  landed.  An  instant  after,  as  I  stood  on  the 
parapet  of  the  fortification,  amid  the  breathless  silence, 
this  pillar  of  cloud,  ghostly  white,  and  relieved  against 
the  violet  darkness  of  the  sky,  its  edge  as  clear  as  if 
cut  with  a  knife,  came  rushing  forward  over  the  lagoon, 
driven  by  the  spirit  of  wind,  which,  hidden  within  it» 
whirled   and   coiled  its   column   into  an  endless  spiral 


APPENDIX.  225 


The  wind  was  only  there,  at  its  very  edge  there  was  not 
a  ripple ;  but  as  it  drew  near  our  island  it  seemed  to 
be  pressed  down  upon  the  sea,  and,  unable  to  resist 
the  pressure,  opened  out  like  a  fan  in  a  foam  of  vapor. 
Then  with  a  shriek  which  made  every  nerve  thrill  with 
excitement,  the  imprisoned  wind  leapt  forth,  the  water 
of  the  lagoon,  beaten  flat,  was  torn  away  to  the  depth 
of  half  an  inch,  and  as  the  cloud  of  spray  and  wind 
smote  the  island,  it  trembled  all  over  like  a  ship  struck 
by  a  greaX  wave.  We  seemed  to  be  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  universe  at  a  moment  when  the  thought  of  the 
universe  was  most  sublime.  ...  It  is  in  such  a  moment 
when,  as  it  were,  you  find  your  individuality  outside  of 
you,  in  the  being  of  the  universe,  that  you  are  most 
individual,  and  most  able  to  /eel  your  being,  though  not 
to  iAini  it"  —  Stopf'>rd  A.  Brooke:  Sermon  on  In- 
tUviduality, 

Note  XIX.    Page  148. 

"  Truth  is  the  beginning  of  every  good  to  the  gods, 
and  of  every  good  to  man  :  and  he  who  would  be  blessed 
and  happy  should  be  from  the  first  a  partaker  of  the  truth, 
that  he  may  live  a  true  man  as  long  as  possible,  for  then 
be  can  be  trusted ;  but  he  is  not  to  be  trusted  who  loves 


226  APPENDIX. 


voluntary  falsehood,  and  he  who  loves  involuntary  false- 
hood^ is  a  fool."  —  Plato  :  Laws,  book  v,  sec.  730. 

Compare  with  this  the  loftier  saying  of  a  Chris- 
tian philosopher :  — 

"  The  energies  of  the  intellect,  increase  of  insight,  and 
enlarging  views,  are  necessary  to  keep  alive  the  substan- 
tial faith  in  the  heart.  They  are  the  appointed  fuel  to  the 
sacred  fire.  In  the  state  of  perfection  all  other  faculties 
may,  perhaps,  be  swallowed  up  in  love  ;  but  it  is  on  the 
wings  of  the  cherubim,  which  the  ancient  Hebrew  doctors 
interpreted  as  meaning  the  powers  and  efforts  of  the 
intellect,  that  we  must  first  be  borne  up  to  the  'pure 
Empyrean  ; '  and  it  must  be  seraphs,  and  not  the  hearts 
of  poor  mortals,  that  can  burn  unfueled  and  self-fed."  — 
Coleridge:  Lay  Sermons,  p,  156,  Burlington  Ed. 

Note  XX.    Page  152. 

"  This  singular  treatise  contains  a  profusion  of  epithets, 
new-created  words,  paraphrases,  and  repetitions,  conveyed 
in  long  and  intricate  periods.  He  clouds  his  meaning 
by  his  gorgeous   rhetoric :  nevei  content  with  iUustrat- 


APPENDIX.  227 


ing  his  sentiment  by  an  adapted  simile,  he  is  perpetu- 
ally abandoning  his  subject  to  pursue  his  imagery.  He 
illustrates  his  illustrations,  till  he  has  forgotten  both  their 
meaning  and  appHcability.  Hence  his  style  is  an  endless 
tissue  of  figures,  which  he  never  leaves  till  he  has  con- 
verted every  metaphor  into  a  simile,  and  every  simile  into 
a  wearisome  episode.  .  .  .  The  whole  is  a  confused  med- 
ley of  great  and  exuberant  genius,  wasting  and  bur- 
lesquing uncommon  powers."  —  Turner's  Hist.  Anglo 
Saxons,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  351,  352.  (On  Aldhelm,  Abbot  of 
Malmsbury.) 

Note  XXI.    Page  154, 

This  reference  to  Dr.  Emmons,  made  upon 
the  imperfect  recollection  of  the  moment,  does 
not  represent  with  entire  correctness  his  remark  ; 
and  as  he  was  a  very  exact  man  it  is  better  to 
give  his  apothegm  with  exactness  :  — 

"  Style  is  only  the  frame  to  hold  our  thoughts.  It  is 
like  the  sash  of  a  window  ;  a  heavy  sash  will  obscure  the 
light  The  object  is  to  have  as  little  sasii  as  will  hold  the 
lights,  that  we  may  not  think  of  the  frame,  but  have  the 
most  light."  —  Prof.  Park's  Memoir,  p.  328. 


228  APPENDIX. 


The  Doctor  himself  did  not  approve  of  preach- 
ing without  notes ;  and  if  he  had  foreseen  that 
he  was  ever  to  be  referred  to  in  a  lecture  upon 
the  subject  it  would  very  likely  have  added  fresh 
emphasis  —  if  that  were  possible  —  to  his  mild 
declaration  that  "  the  most  important  requisites 
for  an  extemporaneous  preacher  are  ignorance, 
impudence,  and  presumption."  Yet  his  biogra- 
pher says  of  one  celebrated  passage  in  a  sermon 
of  his  :  "  There  are  internal  signs  that  his  light- 
ning-like comments  may  have  been  made  extem- 
pore in  that  paragraph.  The  electric  spirit  of 
them  has  vanished  from  the  words  as  they  appear 
in  type."  (p.  330). 

Even  with  him,  then,  it  was  the  unwritten 
word,  not  the  written,  which  flamed  and  burned. 

Note  XXII.    Page  156. 

The  whole  familiar  and  noble  passage  may 
well  be  quoted  :  — 

"  For  me,  readers,  although  I  cannot  say  that  I  am 
utterly  mitrain'd  in  those  nUes  which  best  rhetoricians 


APPENDIX.  229 


have  given,  or  unacquainted  with  those  examples  which 
the  prime  authors  of  eloquence  have  written,  in  any 
learned  tongue  ;  yet  true  Eloquence  I  find  to  be  none  but 
the  serious  and  hearty  love  of  truth  :  and  that  whose 
mind  soever  is  fully  possest  with  a  fervent  desire  to 
know  good  things,  and  with  the  dearest  charity  to  infuse 
the  knowledge  of  them  into  others,  when  such  a  man 
would  speak,  his  words  (by  what  I  can  express)  like  so 
many  nimble  and  airy  servitors  trip  about  him  at  com- 
mand, and  in  well-order'd  files,  as  he  would  wish,  fall 
aptly  into  their  own  places."  — Apology  for  Smectymnuus. 

Note  XXIII.    Page  158. 

"The  greatest  thoughts  are  wronged,  if  not  linked 
with  beauty ;  and  they  win  their  way  most  surely  and 
deeply  into  the  soul  when  arrayed  in  this  their  natural 
and  fit  attire.  .  .  .  Thus  outward  beauty  is  akin  to  some- 
thing deeper  and  unseen,  is  the  reflection  of  spiritual 
attributes." — Channing  :   Works ^  vol.  ii.  p.  366. 


Note  XXIV.    Page  172. 

"  Oiu"  great  thoughts,  our  great  affections,  the  truths 
of  our  life,  never  leave  us.     Surely,  tiiey  cannot  separate 


230  APPENDIX. 


from  our  consciousness ;  shall  follow  it  whithersoever 
that  shall  go,  and  are  of  their  nature  Divine  and  immor- 
tal." —  Thackeray,  Esmond,  book  iii.  chap.  vi. 

Note  XXV.    Page  174. 

"Sooty  Manchester,  —  it  too  is  built  on  the  infinite 
abysses ;  over-spanned  by  the  skyey  firmaments ;  and 
there  is  birth  in  it,  and  death  in  it ;  —  and  it  is  every  whit 
as  wonderful,  as  fearful,  unimaginable,  as  the  oldest 
Salem  or  prophetic  city.  Go  or  stand,  in  what  time,  in 
what  place  we  will,  are  there  not  Immensities,  Eternities, 
«ver  us,  around  us,  in  us : 

'  Solemn  before  us. 
Veiled,  the  dark  Portal, 
Goal  of  all  mortal :  — 
Stars  silent  rest  o'er  us, 
Graves  under  us  silent.* " 

Carltle  :  Past  and  Present^  book  iii.  chap.  xv. 

Note  XXVI.    Page  176. 

"  In  all  the  accounts  one  reads  of  myrrh,  frankincense, 
And  other  '  medicinal  gums,'  one  always  finds  difEerent 


APPENDIX.  231 


qualities  mentioned;  the  ^^j/ being  what  e:rades  sponta- 
neously, and  not  by  tapping  or  boiling  down.  And  so  it  is 
with  apothegms.  If  a  man  taps  him«elf  to  draw  them 
out,  he  will  be  the  more  likely  to  sacrifice  truth  to  an- 
tithesis." — Letter  of  Abp.  Whately  :  Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  312. 


Note  XXVII.    Page  178. 

Milton's  good  word  for  occasional  sarcasm  is 
certainly  just :  — 

"  Even  this  vein  of  laughing,  as  I  could  produce  out 
of  grave  authors,  hath  ofttimes  a  strong  and  sinewy 
force  in  teaching  and  confuting,"  —  Milton  :  on  Remoti' 
stranfs  Defence. 

But  the  maxim  of  Lord  Bacon  seems  always 
the  best  one  for  the  pulpit :  — 

"  As  for  jest,  there  be  certain  things  which  ought  to  be 
privileged  from  it ;  namely,  religion,  matters  of  state, 
great  persons,  any  man's  present  business  of  importance, 
and  any  case  that  deserveth  pity.  Yet  there  be  some 
that  think  their  wits  have  been  asleep,  except  they  dart 


232  APPENDIX. 


out  something  that  is  piquant,  and  to  the  quick.    That  is 
a  vein  which  should  be  bridled  : 

"Parce,    puer,    stimulis,    et    fortius    utere    loris."— 
Bacon's  Essays,  xxxii. 


Note  XXVIII.     Page  203. 

"  The  rugged  gentleness,  the  wit  whose  glory 

Flash'd  like  a  sword,  because  its  edge  was  keen, 
The  fine  antithesis,  the  flowing  story ;  — 
Beneath  such  things  the  sainthood  is  not  seen, 


"  Till  in  the  hours  when  the  wan  hand  is  lifted 
To  take  the  bread  and  wine,  through  all  the  mist 
Of  mortal  weariness  our  eyes  are  gifted 
To  see  a  quiet  radiance  caught  from  Christ ; 


"  Till  from  the  pillow  of  the  thinker,  lying 

In  weakness,  comes  the  teaching,  then  best  taught, 
That  the  true  crown  for  any  soul  in  dying 

Is  Christ,  not  genius,  and  is  faith,  not  thought. 


APPENDIX.  233 


"  O  Death,  for  all  thy  darkness,  grand  unveiler 
Of  lights  on  lights  above  Life's  shadowy  place, 
Just  as  the  night,  that  makes  our  small  world  pahr. 
Shows  us  the  star-sown  amplitudes  of  space  ! 

**  O  strange  discovery  !    Land  that  knows  no  bounding, 
Isles  far  ofiE  hail'd,  bright  seas  without  a  breath, 
What  time  the  white  sail  of  the  soul  is  rounding 
The  misty  cape  —  the  promontory  Death ! " 

Rev.  William  Alexander: 
Om  tht  Dtath  of  Archbishop  Whattfy 


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